IDEAL Business Formula

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How to Build Your IDEAL Business
Around Your IDEAL Life.
By PAT RIGSBY
CelebrityPress®
Winter Park, Florida
What Others Are Saying About
THE IDEAL BUSINESS FORMULA
“If you’re looking to build a business that is rewarding in every

way, Pat is the man that can help you. He’ll give you a proven
formula for personal and professional success.”
~ Lewis Howes
New York Times Best-selling Author®
“Pat Rigsby is the perfect mentor for entrepreneurs. He's not

only very successful, but he's achieved that success both the
wrong way—suffering from overworking, stress, and burnout—
and a more sustainable approach with more balance. The
IDEAL Business Formula is a blueprint for a better approach to
business—and life.”
- Adam Bornstein
New York Times Best-selling Author®
“This book is a MUST for anyone who wants a more fulfilling

business. If you want to enjoy your business more and create
more IMPACT in the universe, Pat gives you the blueprint with
his IDEAL Business Formula book. Definitely a MUST read for
any fitness or wellness professional looking for more business
development and personal growth.”
~ Todd Durkin
Author, The WOW BOOK & The IMPACT Body Plan
Trainer, NBC STRONG
Member, Under Armour Performance Training Team
“After working with Pat Rigsby and many of his successful clients
in the health and wellness industry for more than a decade, I
convinced Pat that he had to share his simple, practical, yet
profound business processes and strategies with the rest of the
business world. He finally relented and wrote this book. If you
want to make your first 6 figures in business, or want to break
through to your next 7 figures, this book is the best place to start.”
~ Nick Nanton
5-Time Emmy® Award-Winning Director
Wall Street Journal Best-selling Author® of StorySelling
“Starting a business is challenging. Managing growth of that

business is even more challenging. Establishing the lifestyle
that you want that actually includes that business is nearly
impossible. If there’s anyone who can show you how, it’s Pat
Rigsby—and that’s why this book is a must read. As you read it
you’ll find yourself nodding your head and asking ‘Why didn’t I
think of that?’ ”
~ Eric Cressey
“There are countless generic business resources that may assist

you in developing a profitable business. Where Pat differentiates
himself from all the others is that not only is he the model guide
to profitability (he's done it himself more than once), but he
stands alone as the leader in how to build the perfect business
for YOU. The IDEAL Business Formula provides the framework
for creating a successful business without creating a monster
that steals away all of the important things. You'll learn how to
keep everything in its place to overcome the obstacles preventing
you from creating a unique, high-production business, and how
to design, create, and master the process of building your IDEAL
life.”
~ Bill Hartman
“Pat Rigsby has one of the best minds for business, merging
the often challenging concepts of business design, effective
marketing, and strategic long-term planning. His new book
takes that a step further. Many entrepreneurs are stuck in the
day to day treading water and hoping for that one magical day
where it all pays off. The IDEAL Business Formula helps put
you in a position to succeed by assuring you are thinking in both
the short and long term. This is something that doesn’t come
naturally for most people. I am fortunate to have worked with
Pat throughout the many stages of my personal online business
as well as my brick and mortar gym. His mentorship has helped
me build my IDEAL Life and Business.”
~ Mike Reinold
“Why should you read this book? Because you don’t want to just
survive in business like most do—existing in the gray twilight
of mediocrity. You want to thrive. And Pat Rigsby shows you
the exact formula for doing that. In The Art of War, Sun Tzu
said, ‘Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.’ Those
eight words beautifully summarize exactly why so many business
owners are just surviving, stressed out and anxious. Pat knows
strategy comes first. And he teaches you the ultimate strategy:
how to create your IDEAL Business. A business that serves
you, not enslaves you. For over a decade, I’ve watched Pat
intentionally, thoughtfully and strategically grow a dominant,
lucrative “Category of One” business. I’ve seen how he
prioritizes family and lifestyle over work—and how that makes
him richer, not poorer. How it makes him more focused, present
and effective in everything he does. And how that creates for him
the freedom so many entrepreneurs pay lip service to, but never
really realize. Pat has truly mastered the game of small business.
He actually gets to have his cake and eat it too. And when you
read this book you’ll quickly discover it’s not luck, accident or
fluke. It’s by design—it’s formulaic. A formula you can follow to
produce the business and life you want most.”
~ Eric Ruth
founder LocalByReferral.com
“Pat lays out in detail the essentials of building an IDEAL

Business that results in an ideal life. Too often authors bring a
half-baked concepts that haven't been proven and tested, Pat is
exactly the opposite. Through stories, examples, and proof, he
shows you the true requirements of building a life and business
you love. A business that serves clients to the best of your ability
and results in their growth and your wealth.”
~ Paul Evans
www.PaulEvans.com
“Pat Rigsby, in his new book The IDEAL Business Formula,

shares his proven model to increase customers and revenue,
while also creating systems that help you scale your business
and create a personal lifestyle. Pat is the REAL DEAL!”
~ Kyle Wilson
Founder Jim Rohn Int., Your Success Store and KyleWilson.com
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
No book becomes a reality through the work of just the author.

This is particularly true with the IDEAL Business Formula. I
gratefully acknowledge the inspiration and help of the following
people; this book would never have been published without you.
Holly—thank you for your support and partnership in business

and, more importantly, in life.
Tyler and Alex—thank you for serving as the motivation to make

the shift from working to creating the IDEAL Business.
My parents—thank you to my mom, Linda, for being a never

ending source of support and to my dad, Ray, for displaying the
work ethic that I learned was necessary for business success.
Jeff Ramey—thanks for being both my best friend and my

biggest role model.
Many thanks to the people on my team responsible for the “heavy

lifting” of getting this from concept into print: Matt, Amy &
Denise.
Thank you to all of my coaching clients who have committed to

building your own IDEAL Business. It’s beyond the scope of this
section of the book to thank you each individually, but that doesn’t
lessen my gratitude for your contribution and commitment.
And thank you to the leaders and friends who have helped me
along the way. Professionals like Chris Poirier, Nick Nanton, Jack
Dicks, Pat Beith, Eric Cressey, Pete Dupuis, Mike Robertson,
Bill Hartman, Fred Zoller, Mike Reinold, Carrie Wilkerson, Eric

Ruth, Luka Hocevar, Kyle Wilson, Scott Rawcliffe, John Berardi,
Adam Bornstein, Rick Streb, Justin Yule, Sam Bakhtiar and John
Spencer Ellis.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD .......................................................................... 17
PREFACE .............................................................................. 23
INTRODUCTION................................................................... 27
CHAPTER 1
THE IDEAL LIFE............................................................ 33
CHAPTER 2
THE IDEAL MIND-SET............................................... 49
CHAPTER 3
THE IDEAL FOUNDATION ....................................... 61
CHAPTER 4
GUARDRAILS ................................................................ 71
CHAPTER 5
IDEAL LEADERSHIP............................................... 79
CHAPTER 6
A CATEGORY OF ONE .............................................. 91
CHAPTER 7
YOUR IDEAL NICHE .................................................. 99
CHAPTER 8
YOUR IDEAL BRAND.................................................107
CHAPTER 9
YOUR IDEAL PLATFORM ....................................... 119
CHAPTER 10
THE IDEAL RELATIONSHIP................................ 131
CHAPTER 11
3 MILLION REASONS WHY MY PLATFORM
WORKS............................................................................. 141
CHAPTER 12
IDEAL TIME MANAGEMENT.............................. 155
CONCLUSION .....................................................................167
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ........................................................ 171

FOREWORD
FOREWORD
BY CARRIE WILKERSON AND

MIKE ROUSSELL, PhD
Carrie Wilkerson
In 1998 my husband and I adopted siblings, a brother and sister,

ages two years and eight months respectively. Instantly, we were
parents. Instantly, the career I’d worked for (and loved) was less
important. Instantly, I wanted to be home, to be a mom, to be the
stability that these babies had never had.
I did not have an ounce of business training. I did not have a

big world-changing or wealth-building idea. I did not have any
capital, product, support or even any spare time. (Instant babies,
remember?)  
What I did have was a burning desire to create cash using my

brain or skills. What I did have was a firm set of core values that I
suspected I could keep intact if I created my own business. What
I did have was ‘more month than money’ so I HAD to make it
work, no matter what! Oh, how I wish I’d known Pat Rigsby
then!
This book didn’t exist then, and there were very scarce resources
on how to create a business that respected who you were and how
you lived. There were plenty of books, infomercials, emails and
products about how to create massive income and passive income,
how to develop xyz product or pathway, and how to copycat this
guru or that…but there was nothing about looking in the mirror,
17
at your calendar, at your family photo, and your priorities and

building from what you wanted to reflect.
Fast-forward to now, and you do the math…I’ve been a business

builder a very long time. I’ve added two more kids, miraculously
stayed married (bless his heart), and generated my own income
since that first decision. But I’ve made major mistakes. I checked
emails during football games, recitals, and plays, and I wasn’t
fully present when I could have been. I also flat out did work I
resented because I wasn’t working wisely or respecting my own
‘guardrails.’
Now, I’m smarter. I’ve taken Pat’s workshops, read his materials,
and valued our relationship for over ten years. He doesn’t just have
ideas. He hasn’t just ‘seen’ things work. He lives and breathes
what he speaks.
I’ve been fortunate enough to watch this transition in his life.

While I’ve seen wannabees and could-have-beens come and go,
Pat has hung in there, learned and applied, and stood fast for his
family and his integrity.
He’s come in to teach my clients and I point others in his direction

often. Quite simply, I trust him.
His family has been in my home, we’ve met mid-street at Disney

World and we’re a testament that not only does the IDEAL
Business respect your family and your time, but relationships are
important too.
If you believe that profit is king, that prominence is queen and

that people are just stepping stones to get where you want to
go…this isn’t the book for you. However, if you suspect that you
can build a meaningful business with radical profitability while
keeping your family and building some amazing relationships
along the way…then keep reading because Pat is your guy and
this is your book.
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FOREWORD
Get out your highlighter and ink pen. Have your sticky notes
ready…your life and business are about to change.
Carrie Wilkerson
Speaker, Author & Consultant
CarrieWilkerson.com
***
Mike Roussell, PhD
When I first graduated from Penn State with my PhD in nutrition

I had a decision to make. My wife and I had three young children
(one only a couple weeks old). What was the next step in my
professional life going to be?
Take an academic job researching and teaching at a smaller

school with limited budgets and resources?
Find a postdoctoral fellowship and be essentially a glorified

graduated student for another two to four years as I built up
my resume in order to be a competitive applicant for a tier one
research university (nothing about that was attractive to me).
Perhaps I should find a job in the "industry" which paid well…

but that healthy compensation came at a price—the "golden
handcuffs" that ensured you sang the company's song.
To be honest, none of these sounded appealing to me. It wasn't

my passion. I was driven by my love of science but also my love
for entrepreneurship. I was closing in on 30 and had been in
school my entire life. If I wasn't going to do what I truly wanted
to do now, then when? If I wasn't willing to bet on myself then
what was the point of all those years of study?
I have always envisioned a different work-life than most PhDs.

At Penn State they call my career choice "an alternative option."
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In this book that you are about to read, Pat calls it the IDEAL
Business (but it is really, as he also calls it, the IDEAL Life).
So what did I choose? I chose to bet on myself. I purchased a

folding table, put it on four cinderblocks and worked from a
standup desk in the spare bedroom in our 1000 square ft. home.
When I started out I didn't really know what I was doing, but I
knew how to work, network, and build relationships. So that's
what I did.
As I read the The IDEAL Business Formula, I found myself

wishing that I had this book when I started out. It is a more
concise, more effective, and flat-out better version of the playbook
that I developed from years of trial and error. A playbook which
took me from a that spare bedroom in central Pennsylvania
to building myself into a nationally known nutrition strategist
and advisor to Men's Health magazine, numerous professional
athletes, celebrities, and high-powered executives…all on my
own terms.
My approach was fueled by hustle and caffeine. Fortunately, Pat

outlines for you a slightly more elegant approach. An approach
that still requires hustle (and probably caffeine), but one that
understands you don't need to be everything to everyone while
also being a regular on the Today Show to live your IDEAL Life.
In fact, it is a lot simpler than you think.
Pat's approach will show you step by step how to map out, work
towards, and live your IDEAL Business—whatever it may be.
Creating and running your IDEAL Business isn't about drinking
margaritas on a hammock in the Caribbean (it can be if you
want that), but instead it is about being very clear about what
you want (and don't want) in your life, what it takes to get it, and
then relentlessly executing to achieve it. The IDEAL Business
Formula isn't your guide to the easy life, but instead the good
life. Whether you enjoy lounging at Disney World so much that
20
FOREWORD
the cast members know you by name and how you like your
coffee (like Pat), or you like spending the summer months split
between cabins in the woods of the northeast and cottages on the
beaches of Maine (like me), The IDEAL Business Formula will
be your trusted blueprint for making it happen.
This book is not full of quick fixes and lists of the top ways to
growth hack your way to stardom. Instead, Pat shares how he has
used tried and true marketing and relationship-sustaining tactics
and adopted them for solo or small business entrepreneurs that
want to live life on their own terms.
Autonomy is the greatest asset you have. This book will show
you how to achieve it—if you are willing to be a producer and
put in the work.
Mike Roussell, PhD
21
PREFACE
PREFACE
Imagine if you had spent the last 15 years speaking with

thousands of fitness and wellness entrepreneurs. In the process,
you realize you've probably logged more time in conversations
with these business owners than anyone else in the world. You'd
hear stories of brave fit pros putting everything on the line for
their dreams...only to struggle for years on end. Then, in piecing
all these stories together, you’d notice some 'big data' patterns
emerging most others miss.
You'd discover a universal type of language:
“I need to earn more personal income for the time and effort I’m
putting into my business.”
“I don’t have enough time for myself or my family.”
“I feel like my business ‘owns’ me.”
“I’m burned out.”
“I don’t enjoy owning my business anymore.”
Can you relate? I certainly can.
In fact, you should know I’ve experienced every one of those

negative emotions at one time or another. You see, I’ve built over
25 different businesses ranging from award-winning franchises
with hundreds of locations to small online businesses. And along
the way, I’ve felt like there were never enough hours in the day.
23
I know the personal pain of feeling like my efforts were going

unrewarded. I know the seductive feeling of success is just one
more business, one more promotion, or one more employee away.
But through all the madness, I discovered a vital truth.
The passion in which I was pursuing success—the adrenalin

addiction I was operating under—was all wrong.
I was in constant pursuit and hunger for ‘more’…more revenue,

more clients, more franchisees…more, more, more. No matter
how much success I achieved, I always felt the target could be a
little bigger...pushed out a bit further...and just out of reach so that
I would be forced to chase it.
Then one day, when the pressure cooker of life wouldn’t let
my health take it anymore, I asked myself a question. And that
question led me down a completely different path—a path that
ultimately inspired this book:
“What is business success for me?”
Not success according to some arbitrary gross revenue target.

Not based on being recognized in the Entrepreneur Franchise
500, or in the Inc. 5000. Not based on how many franchisees I
added or products I sold.
No. No. No…success, for me, couldn’t be any of that.
Instead, I had to find out…
“What changes must take place for me to have the professional

impact I want…while enjoying a personal lifestyle I crave?”
My answer evolved into what I’ve coined The IDEAL Business.

And that’s what I’ve built.
Today, my work schedule could not be any more different. I have
24
PREFACE
the flexibility to coach my son’s baseball team. I can disconnect

from work most evenings and weekends. And I take more time
off annually than I could in the entire decade leading up to this
shift.
Yet my impact has never been more significant, and my income

is 3X more than it was when I was running two franchises and a
host of other businesses. And I love my work pretty much every
day. Sure, there are challenging moments. Like you, I tolerate
quarterly taxes and all the rest of the stuff we have to navigate
as business owners. But instead of enjoying 20% of my time
at work, now I enjoy more than 90%. So—yes—I’ve built my
IDEAL Business…
But this book isn’t about MY business. This book is about what
it takes to build YOUR IDEAL Business.
It’s time someone showed you, step-by-step, how to build the

business you want to own. This book is vastly different from any
other business book you’ve read. That’s because this book is not
a blueprint for building a clone of someone else’s business. Nor
is this book designed to address a single component of business
success. It’s not about any of that kind of stuff.
Instead, this book is about you—100% you and your IDEAL

Business—and what you want out of it.
Now, before you dive in, I will tell you up front there is no magic
bullet or secret formula for building your IDEAL Business.
Forget all of those over-the-top claims that have distorted
people’s expectations of what business success should look like
or how it’s attained. What I will tell you, however, is that creating
your IDEAL Business (or re-engineering your current business
so that it becomes IDEAL), is not complicated. In many ways,
this approach will take you back to the basics and ask you to use
time-tested concepts and principles that will yield sustainable
success. In fact, I’m going to ask you to rethink how you go about
25
achieving success and consider adopting what I suspect will be

a simpler path to achieving your goals. And I fully expect that
creating and operating your IDEAL Business will likely feel less
like ‘hard work’ than what you’ve been experiencing until now.
Now this may sound intangible at the moment, but don’t worry,
things will become clearer before you know it. I’ve gone to
great lengths to simplify the formula you are about to read.
That’s because building your IDEAL Business provides you an
operating system for achieving personal and professional success.
The success that has not only worked for me, but for hundreds of
my clients in building the business that they want.
Here’s the bottom line: You can have the business that you want.
The plan that will help you go from where you are today to having
your IDEAL Business is spelled out for you on the following
pages. Now it’s up to you.
While you can’t sleepwalk your way through the creation of your
IDEAL Business...if you’re willing to make some small changes
in the way you think, and the actions you take, I promise you can
change your life. It’s that simple. You’ll begin by eliminating the
parts of your business you’re eager to escape. And you’ll work
your way through the process until you arrive at a place that
looks remarkably like your IDEAL Business—a business you
may have thought wasn't possible.
To make the process of building your IDEAL Business

easy as possible, I’ve included a variety of resources at
TheIDEALBusinessBook.com. Please, use them! They are for
your own good.
This book (and the tools I’ve provided to support you), can be life
changing if put into action. I know they have been for me and I
am confident that creating your IDEAL Business can have just as
much impact for you.
Let’s get you started!

26
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
THE HOLIDAY THAT

WASN’T
What better way to spend a family Thanksgiving than with Mickey

Mouse? Disney World may or may not be your ideal vacation, but
my wife and I love the “most magical place on earth;” which is
why we spend the holiday weekend at Disney World every year.
Our boys love the giant theme park and all the good times it
offers, and we love to treat them to those experiences. To tell the
truth, it’s fun for us grown-ups as well.
However in 2013, Thanksgiving was different. I woke up

early, before my wife and boys, because I had to participate in
something that was very far from my idea of a good time. On
any other day, I wouldn’t have had a problem with it, but not this
day. Not when I was supposed to be relaxing with my family on
a holiday vacation.
Instead, I had to go down to the hotel lobby with my laptop and

jump on a call that my business partner had scheduled for us and
other members of our leadership team—yes, on Thanksgiving
morning. I had to refocus on the business matters that I had come
to Disney World to forget about for a few days. That meeting (and
the way I felt about it) was the first real indicator that my life was
becoming something I didn’t want it to be.
For the past decade, I had been working 24/7 to build a successful
27
career as an entrepreneur in the fitness industry. That meant I

had been in constant hustle mode for ten years—beginning with
my personal training business and constantly growing from
there. At first, I was in the gym every morning, noon, night, and
weekends. If you name it, I was probably at the gym. Along the
way, I managed to squeeze in some time for my wedding, but
because I had married somebody who was in the same business,
the number of work hours didn’t really drop. Instead, both of us
spent all our time at the gym!
Her four-year-old son, now my stepson, got swept up in our

professional pursuits as well. His preschool bus would pick him
up at the gym in the morning and bring him back afterward.
We had a little area set up in the back for him where he could
watch movies and play so he could have his own “chill” time
until we headed home for his bedtime. About all we did at home
was sleep.
Why was I so consumed with work? Well, I really didn’t get

started as an entrepreneur until I was thirty-two. Before that, I
had been a baseball coach at a state university. My initial career
choice didn’t leave me swimming in money, so at thirty-two I
set out to make up for lost time. I wanted to take care of my new
family and wanted to make sure we had a comfortable future
ahead of us.
Fortunately for our son, my wife and I were able to shift much
of her business to an online model about three years into our
marriage, which left me as the only “gym rat” in the family. Only
now, because my whole ambition was to earn as much income
as possible, I had expanded my operation to two gyms and was
spending a lot of time on the road. The facilities were about two
hours apart. Between my working hours and driving hours, life
was really getting insane.
Something had to give.
28
INTRODUCTION
As I still hadn’t achieved most of my entrepreneurial goals, I

made a conscious decision to move in the direction my wife was
going with her business. If I could sell informational products,
deliver coaching to other small business owners, and get into
licensing and franchising, I could grow my business and our
income without having to be physically present everywhere I was
planting seeds.
That seemed to be working out until my wife and I had a child.

By this time I was around forty and had successfully refocused
my businesses so that I didn’t have to always be traveling. I could
supervise most of my “mini-empire” virtually, which meant
I could be more involved in raising our kids. I felt I had put
enough “sweat equity” into my business to have earned the right
to experience a little bit of the work-family balance I craved so
much.
But, once again, I was a victim of my own success.
My ability to control my time faded quickly. As my businesses

grew, my responsibilities kept snowballing. I was suddenly doing
a lot of stuff I wasn’t all that excited about. I was looking after
almost forty employees, I had a couple hundred franchisees with
their own individual needs, and suddenly I was in charge of a huge
operation that didn’t leave much room for the most important
people in my life: my wife and our boys. I was spending so much
time trying to sync up with other people’s schedules that my
own personal schedule went up in flames. There were constant
conflicts between what I wanted to do and what I actually had to
do to keep things running smoothly.
Now, I’m as far from an egomaniac as you might imagine, but I

kept thinking to myself, I started all these businesses to achieve
MY goals, not everyone else’s. I didn’t want to say my life and
work was all about me—but some of it should be, right? I mean
life’s too short. Why would I sacrifice what was most important
in my life just to become a hamster that keeps running so that its
wheel never stops?
29
Yet, at the same time, I still felt the drive to achieve. I wanted to
see my name on the Entrepreneur Franchise 500 list. I wanted
to be recognized in the business community as a leader. And, of
course, I wanted to create sustainable success for my family and
myself.
I also wanted to be a good dad and husband, as well as serve as

an excellent example to my kids. If my kids grew up only caring
about their careers because of what they watched me do with
my life, I certainly wouldn’t be happy about that. And ultimately
neither would they.
Eventually, I did begin to win awards and have my name

mentioned in magazines. I found less and less fulfillment in those
recognitions. Instead, I felt more and more conflicted about the
path I was on. Did I want to feel guilty when I was out in the
yard playing catch with my son? No, but I did. A lot of other
people’s livelihoods were tied up in my operation, and I felt that
responsibility keenly. I constantly felt that tension. When my son
and I were playing catch, there was always the thought in the back
of my mind that I could have been doing something productive to
help my businesses keep thriving. That thought made just being a
dad who was playing with his kids seem… frivolous.
Then that Thanksgiving morning happened. Why did I need

to be on a business call on a morning when millions of other
Americans were enjoying some well-deserved time off with their
families? I didn’t. That realization was a tipping point for me.
I made a vow that I was going to start a brand-new business

created with a set of “guardrails” firmly in place so that I wouldn’t
have to constantly battle for a spare minute to be with my wife
and kids. (I’ll be talking about how to apply your own guardrails
later in this book.) Over the next year, I started to research how
other successful people who had achieved more balance in their
lives approached business differently—how they navigated their
role as a leader without doing so at the expense of their family
life or whatever other personal interests they might have.
30
INTRODUCTION
Result? Today I’m happier, I earn more money, and I work far less
than at any other time in my professional life. In every category
I’ve just mentioned, that increase has been by at least a multiple
of two.
Now I can look back and see I spent far too much time playing by
other people’s rules of what success should be. For me to really
win, I had to let go of those preconceived ideas and play by my
own rules—what I call “The IDEAL Business Rules” in this
book. When I saw I could create a business based on my life
goals, built with firm boundaries in place, that’s when I really
transformed my life into something that was ideal for me and my
family.
I want to help you do the same. I want you to achieve your IDEAL
Life, combining professional success with personal satisfaction
in a way that most people think is impossible. The reality is, it’s
easier that you think. I discovered that when you allow yourself
the freedom to create the future you want, you suddenly unlock
possibilities you never would have seen otherwise.
This book is designed to help any entrepreneur or professional

find those possibilities and transform them into reality. I’ll be
sharing the hard-earned experience and knowledge that I’ve
gained through my own process of discovering my IDEAL
Business Rules. These are proven practices that have worked for
me, and I think they’ll work for you. At the very least, maybe
they’ll inspire you to come up with a few rules of your own to
help you get where you want to go.
But this book isn’t only about possibilities. It’s also about
dealing with cold, hard realities that every business must face
on a day-to-day basis. That’s why I’m also going to share a lot of
commonsense advice, tailored specifically to the entrepreneurial
mind-set. All of the advice I’ve included is practical, and it is
informed by my viewpoint that doing business doesn’t have to
be an endless grind that leads nowhere. Hard work can take you
31
to the next level if you allow yourself to dream and direct your
energy toward the right targets.
Ready to take the first step toward your IDEAL Life? Then turn
the page (or swipe to it, if you’re checking out the e-version) and
start reading…
32
THE IDEAL LIFE
CHAPTER 1
THE IDEAL LIFE
Americans work hard, harder than almost anyone else in the

world. According to the International Labour Organization, we
work 137 more hours per year than people in Japan, 260 more
hours per year than those in Britain, and 499 more hours per
year than those in France. Furthermore, overwork is an equal
opportunity offender: A majority of both male and female
workers are on the job for more than forty hours per week. I’d be
willing to bet the hours for entrepreneurs and anyone who owns
their own business are a lot more than that.
Of course, all this hard work does pay off. The United States
ranks at the top in terms of prosperity with the highest gross
domestic product per capita. You know what we’re not number
one in, however? Being happy.
Among the countries in the world, we’re only number sixteen in

terms of overall well-being and all the way down at the twenty-
sixth slot for life enjoyment, according to a Gallup World poll.
Shouldn’t we be reaping more personal rewards for working so
hard?
Now, don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against hard work. As a

matter of fact, hard work and I have been companions throughout
my entire adult life. I’ve started more than twenty-five businesses
and have been fortunate enough to have seven of them generate
more than a million dollars in revenue. That didn’t happen all by
33
itself, but it did require working countless early mornings and

late nights, not to mention weekends and holidays.
That’s life for most entrepreneurs, and it often leads to a chronic

condition that is of our own making called anhedonia. I didn’t
make up that word. It’s for real. The dictionary definition is “the
inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found
enjoyable, e.g., exercise, hobbies, music, or social interactions.”
I would only modify that meaning for our purposes to point out
that it’s not that we can’t enjoy these activities; it’s that we never
allow ourselves the time to participate in them. That’s because of
a side effect our anhedonia causes: a severe case of tunnel vision.
We get to a point where we see nothing but our businesses and all
the things we must do to keep them growing and thriving.
For entrepreneurs, anhedonia usually worsens over the years

because we’re afraid to seek a cure. We’re frightened that
the minute we attempt to mix in personal pleasure with our
professional demands we’ll lose our focus, our companies will
crash, and our employees will end up out on the street. And so
might we, for that matter.
It’s a normal reaction. After all, the entrepreneur’s biggest fear

in life is failure. We don’t work for others, so we can’t rely on
anyone else to keep us afloat. We must depend on ourselves.
Honestly, we like that state of affairs. In fact, most of us became
entrepreneurs so we wouldn’t have to answer to anyone else.

However, independence comes at a cost, and that cost is often not
enjoying our lives to the extent that we should—or sometimes
not enjoying our lives at all. We get addicted to work and avoid
giving ourselves permission for any kind of ongoing enjoyment—
except, perhaps, for the excitement we feel when our businesses
reach new levels of success. We neglect families. We let go of
personal passions and pursuits. We draw a great big box around
our daily existence, and inside that box is only work, work, and
more work.
34
THE IDEAL LIFE
That brings me to the first of my IDEAL Business Rules:
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #1: DON’T WORK HARD

JUST SO YOU CAN END UP WORKING HARDER.
Frankly, we can lose who we are if work consumes our entire

existence. Here are a few danger signs that your business has
taken away too much of your life:
• You try to go to the movies, but end up out in the lobby the
whole time just checking your email and returning phone
calls.
• You have your assistant schedule a call/time to catch up with
your mom.
• After you finish dinner, you have no idea what you ate
because you were completely focused on how to implement
your next marketing campaign.
• You cancel your climb to the peak of Mt. Everest because
you find out there’s no internet up there.
Okay, that last one might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not

by much. I know because I used to have my own severe case of
constant overwork.
There was a time when I thought it was unthinkable to put my

personal life on equal footing with my professional life. When
you’re running the show, when everything is on your shoulders,
you’re afraid to shift priorities even for a second. The thing
is, your personal happiness shares a common truth with your
professional success: If you don’t protect it and nurture it, nobody
is going to do it for you.
As entrepreneurs, we can achieve a life-work balance that works.

After all, we tend to be goal-oriented people with plenty of
drive, so why wouldn’t we want to put those qualities to work
for ourselves as well as for our businesses? It’s simply a matter
of creating realistic targets for ourselves on both sides, personal
and professional, and uncovering ways to achieve those targets.
35
Sure, it’s a little too simplistic to just holler, “You can have it all!”
Life’s a little too messy for that kind of broad generalization.
But, I have discovered for myself that entrepreneurial success
and personal happiness aren’t mutually exclusive. As a matter of
fact, they can get along quite nicely.
The late Senator Paul Tsongas once made the memorable remark,
“Nobody on his deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time
at the office.’" Think about that. Then think about your own life
in ten or twenty years—or even thirty or forty years. Think about
what you’ll have to look back on as well as look forward to. Do
you want it all to be about work?
If you don’t take the time to build a life along with your business,
regret could easily be your legacy. Sure, you might end up with
all the money you desire…but what good is a full bank account
if your life is empty?
“Be careful what you wish for.” That’s another quote I love
to hang on to. It came from the direct marketing legend, Dan
Kennedy, when he was warning people about creating a success
for yourself that you grow to hate. That’s exactly what I did before
I realized I could re-engineer that success, and my business, to
make it what I wanted it to be: a business that allows me to reach
my professional goals and fulfills me personally.
You can make that happen for yourself too. I know you can,
because I’ve done it. Let’s talk about how to you can create the
kind of life balance that so few entrepreneurs get to experience.
Knowing Where You’re Going
Your first step in this process is to shift your mind-set and set a
new direction.
The late Stephen Covey, in his critically acclaimed, best-selling

book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (a favorite of
36
THE IDEAL LIFE
entrepreneurs, by the way), cited the very first habit of the seven
as “Begin with the end in mind.”
I’m certainly not going to quibble with that because it makes a

whole lot of sense, especially when it comes to the subject of this
book. Planning your IDEAL Life, a life that combines personal
satisfaction and professional success, must be a very strategic
pursuit. It begins with knowing exactly what you’re trying to
accomplish on a business level.
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #2:

IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING,
YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO GET THERE.
When you don’t have your ultimate goals in mind at the get-go,
you make the mistakes I did:
• You build businesses randomly and continuously with a

scattershot approach that’s more accidental than purposeful.
• You end up hustling constantly trying to keep up with it all,
which just transforms your life into a nonstop marathon.
• You never see the finish line, because there is no finish line
in your head.
Now, there’s no question when you’re starting out in your

entrepreneurial career that you’re going to have to live your life at
a very hectic pace. There’s a lot to do and a lot to learn because,
for the most part, you’re going to be doing everything yourself.
There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s the normal course of things.
What you can do to make your life easier though is having your
goals in mind before you even begin to put the pieces of your
business together. I would suggest writing them down so you can
refer to them as your business grows.
Think about this. When you get into your car, truck or private
jet (there’s got to be somebody reading this who has one!), you
almost always have a destination in mind. Otherwise, you’ll end
37
up traveling in circles and arriving nowhere. Well, it’s the same

with your professional pursuits. When you don’t know where you
want to go, you’re going to need a lot of luck to end up at a place
that makes you happy.
However, when you have an end game in your head from day
one, that goal will inform all your decisions. You will shape
your own destiny instead of putting yourself at the mercy of fate.
Things won’t always go in the direction you want, but when the
opportunity comes to shift toward the direction you want to go,
you’ll leap at it.
All because you know what you want.
It’s crucial to give your professional goals some real thought from
day one. After all, when you craft the IDEAL Business, you’ve
created the conditions to build your IDEAL Life.
Now, let’s talk about what an ideal business is all about. Or, as I
frame it, an IDEAL Business.
The Components of the IDEAL Business
What should you have in the mix when it comes to the attributes
of your perfect business? Where should your focus be?
When I regrouped and retooled my entrepreneurial goals after

my unwelcome Thanksgiving morning wake-up call, I gave
those attributes some serious thought. I finally came up with
five distinct qualities that had to be a part of any business with
which I was involved in the future. I’m sure you can come up
with others that are particularly important to you, but these five
pretty much cover the bases—not only for me, but almost every
entrepreneur I know who wants to experience the IDEAL Life.
That IDEAL Life requires the IDEAL Business.
38
THE IDEAL LIFE
Which brings me to the reason IDEAL is capitalized when

I talk about business. IDEAL is an acronym with each letter
representing one of those five distinct qualities. When all five
are firmly in place, your business goes beyond endless drudgery
and ongoing obligations to an exciting endeavor that makes you
feel pumped up about what you’re doing each and every day. It
will take time to make sure all five elements are in play, but once
you swing it, you’re going to be very glad you put in the effort to
make them an integral part of your entrepreneurial life.
Let’s go through them, one at a time:
I = Independence
When you read a list of what character traits most entrepreneurs

have in common, “independence” usually tops the list. There’s
a reason we go into business for ourselves: We don’t want to
answer to anyone else. Before I became an entrepreneur, I
worked for a state university. So much of my job entailed dealing
with government bureaucracy, red tape, and budgets. That lack
of control continually frustrated me, especially when I could
see so many ways to do things better and faster. It would have
been easier to try and push a skyscraper over on its side than to
actually change over-complicated systems that had grown more
and more unwieldy through the years.
That experience made me want to take control of my professional

life and become an entrepreneur. Sure, I still have conflicts and
obstacles, but I have the ability to choose my own solutions to
problems without anyone else telling me it’s not “procedure” or
how things are supposed to be done. Instead, I get to decide how
to tackle challenges. Luckily, I’ve been pretty successful with
those decisions, so I never had any cause to regret going out on
my own.
Yet sometimes entrepreneurs still end up fighting for control. For

example, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the two great technology
39
giants of the modern era, both ended up buying out the partners
with whom they started their businesses because they wanted
to be completely in charge. Not to compare myself to those two
legends, but I, too, had a business partner with whom I ended
up parting ways. It happened simply because we had different
visions for where we wanted our company to go. Sometimes
partnerships work, sometimes they don’t—and it’s up to you to
decide if you’re comfortable sharing command. Of course, much
of that decision comes down to who the other person is and what
they’re all about.
Then there are franchise opportunities, a common pursuit for

an entrepreneur. The problem there can be that it’s hard to put
yourself in somebody else's box and play by their rules when
you have your own personal goals and your own professional
objectives. I’ve been a franchisee (as well as a franchisor with
more than 250 locations), and in this case the franchisors offered
a lot of freedom and flexibility in how I could run my franchise.
Nonetheless, the basic set-up can feel limiting because you’re
still implementing someone else’s business model, not your own.
(Still, you might have to experience the franchise option before
you can determine whether it’s right for you.)It’s all a matter of
how much independence you ultimately want. For me, it became
an absolute necessity to gain total control of my business dealings.
That may be the way you feel as well.
Whichever way you choose to go—solopreneur, partnership,

franchisee/franchisor, etc.—having a significant measure of
independence is the critical element to your ultimate happiness.
How else can you have enough of the control you need to build
the life you want?
D = Distinctive
A successful business stands out from the pack.
Think about the reasons you choose a restaurant for dinner.
40
THE IDEAL LIFE
Maybe you like the atmosphere or the service. Maybe the location
or the pricing appeal to you. Or maybe your kids love the puzzles
they put on the children’s menu. It could be anything. The point
is, the eatery gives you a reason to want to go there instead of
some other place.
If you had not noticed, I didn’t even give “the food” as one of
those reasons. That’s because what makes your business special
is frequently not about what product or service it provides—
rather, how it provides it.
Every great business finds a way to be distinctive, to offer

a unique and attractive quality that creates a positive point of
difference from its competition. McDonalds, for example, started
out as just another hamburger joint, but its ability to differentiate
through speed and consistency helped it take off in a huge way.
Successful entrepreneurs always look for a way to make their
businesses distinctive and to communicate that distinctiveness
in a memorable and impactful way to their potential customers,
clients, or patients.
Think about these examples of distinctive businesses:
• A dentist who turns their office into a relaxing spa experience

• An attorney who offers free educational videos and books to
educate the local community about the law
• A niche food market that offers the best organic produce in
town
Those are the kinds of qualities that raise businesses above the
everyday and bring in a regular stream of folks who are ready to
pay for the pleasure of patronizing them. People get excited about
these special “extras” and will, at the drop of a hat, dump bland,
one-size-fits-all companies that don’t provide that special “wow”
factor one way or the other.
For example, if you’re into fitness, you don’t want to hear people
41
saying, “Oh, she’s just another personal trainer.” You want to

hear them say something like, “She’s the woman who can help
you lose weight in no time flat.” If you run a restaurant, you
don’t want people saying, “Oh, it’s just another barbecue joint.”
You want them saying things like, “These guys make the best
barbecue tacos you’ve ever had in your life!” Whatever you want
to specialize in, you want to be known for that and capitalize on
it.
In short, you want to be a “Category of One.” You want to be

unique. If possible, you want to be extraordinary. Being distinctive
gives your business a purpose as well as a magnetic attraction
that will bring in paying customers or patients for years to come.
E = Enjoyable
As you might have noticed by now, much of this book is dedicated

to the concept of enjoying your life. Now, if you can’t enjoy your
work—the thing that occupies most of your waking hours—
your life is going to suffer enormously. That’s why the IDEAL
Business always has a big enjoyable component.
Let’s face it, far more people wake up with the dread of having to
go to work rather than being excited that they get to go to work.
They tolerate that miserable mind-set because they see their
careers as a means to an end (money and security) rather than an
exciting, ongoing opportunity to achieve and grow.
When I decided to establish the rules for my own IDEAL

Business, I determined that I would be intentional about making
sure my professional life always included enjoyment. Sure, I’ve
had ups and downs professionally, but the downs have never been
all that low. I’ve found that what I think of as my worst job is
often a lot better than many people’s best jobs!
Enjoyment is a result of how I approach work, in that I have always

pursued or created opportunities that tapped into my passions. I
42
THE IDEAL LIFE
was always interested in sports and fitness, so it was fun tackling

businesses in those arenas. Likewise, entrepreneurship fascinates
me, so it’s a treat to figure out how to leverage my businesses and
make them successful.
It’s true that many people take the entrepreneurial route because
they want their work life to be enjoyable and not tied to a nine-to-
five job for someone else. But then they create their own career
hell, getting themselves tied down doing a whole bunch of stuff
that they don’t want to do rather than things they really care
about.
I know so many entrepreneurs and business owners who wake

up and their first thought is, "I don't want to work today." When
that’s your first thought, you’ve become a slave to your own
business. Yes, work is work, but it doesn't have to be just a job. It
can actually be fun if you make enjoyment a priority.
Also, you must keep making enjoyment a priority. It’s so common

for people to love their businesses when they start them; but then,
as that business grows, so do their responsibilities. Suddenly they
find they’re spending all their time administering and supervising;
they’re spending no time doing the things they love—the things
that drove them to start the business in the first place! It’s like a
chef who opens his own restaurant and discovers, to his horror,
that all the headaches of running the place have sucked the joy
out of preparing meals.
You don’t want to end up tolerating your business, let alone

hating it. Instead, your goal should be to feel excited about the
challenges your work brings you, even if that means completely
changing things up. I had to reboot my businesses to keep the
enjoyment factor high, and I’m here to tell you, it is possible to
sustain an entrepreneurial life that you love.
One final note: Making sure your work is enjoyable isn’t about
being self-indulgent, self-centered, or elitist. Enjoying what you
43
do helps you achieve more. If something is enjoyable, you’re

willing to go the extra mile to take it to a higher level. You’re
more likely to educate yourself on how to become the best in
your field and to serve your clients, customers or patients at the
highest level.
Loving your work creates an ongoing motivation that doesn’t

require you read inspirational posters on the wall or pump
yourself up with affirmations. It’s another critical component of
an IDEAL Business.
A = Authentic
Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone have built up some incredible

expectations for themselves. On the big screen, they’ve been
regularly portrayed as unstoppable physical specimens that no
one dares challenge. When the biggest, scariest dudes you ever
saw in your life finally take on these on-screen heroes, they end
up getting their butts kicked to the extreme.
Should you be lucky enough to encounter Tom or Sly in person,

however, you will most likely have one immediate thought: Wow.
This guy’s really… short.
Of course, movie actors can never live up to their silver screen

images. Hollywood knows how to make its stars so much bigger
than life that, in person, they’re bound to be, well, smaller. As
an entrepreneur, it’s important to avoid that kind of in-person
disappointment. You want to be the person your customer base
thinks you are.
Imagine if Kentucky Fried Chicken Founder, Colonel Sanders,

had been exposed as a vegetarian. Or if you discovered that
Warren Buffet was secretly broke. Those kinds of disclosures
would surely ruin their images for all time—because they
directly clash with their public images.
44
THE IDEAL LIFE
When you brand your business, you’re making certain implicit

promises to the public. And it’s you who is making those
promises. You’re not a movie actor playing a part; those guys get
some leeway. Nobody expects Daniel Craig to really bring down
international conspiracies like James Bond does. No, you’re a
real, live human being, and customers and patients will desert
you if you prove to be someone different than the image you
project.
That’s why, from the start, you need to be authentic. Let’s say
you start a chain of martial arts studios and present yourself as
a black belt master to attract customers to your classes. Let’s say
the reality is that you couldn’t kick through a wall of Jell-O. If
those studios take off, are you going to spend the next ten, twenty,
or even thirty years trying to keep up this pretense?
Maybe the more important question is, are you going to be able
to keep up that pretense?
People are quick to see through a phony, so you need to be very,

very real. I always have strived for this. When I began doing
webinars and speaking engagements, I had to think for a few
moments about what I should wear. Should I invest in a bunch of
expensive suits and designer ties? Dazzle them with my fashion
sense?
For me, deciding what to wear was a reality check. My idea

of being formal is wearing a polo shirt; I wouldn’t look or act
comfortable in those fancier outfits. A suit and tie to me is about
as appealing as taking a nap on a bed of nails. So I stayed true
to who I was and continue to do so to this day. You may see me
in a suit or tux every year or two at a wedding or party…and that
might even be a stretch.
Because I’ve put myself front and center with my information

products and daily email newsletter, it’s important to me that
when people meet me in person, their image of me and the real
45
me match up precisely. I want to be the same guy of whom they’re

already (hopefully) a fan. Otherwise, I lose at least a little bit of
their respect, and over time, that catches up with you.
The good part about authenticity is that if you’re already putting

into place the first three attributes of IDEAL (Independent,
Distinctive, Enjoyable), it’s going to be extremely difficult not to
add “Authentic” to the mix. As a matter of fact, I’d say it’s darn
near impossible because the business is reflective of your goals,
values, and objectives.
You’re always better off being the person you are instead of
pretending to be someone else. Sure, you may study someone
you want to emulate, but you must put your own spin on the ball.
Even if you love the message of this book, you don’t want to be
me; you need to be you! (Besides, the world doesn’t need any
more Pat Rigsbys, believe me. One is more than enough for all
of us.) The world is always looking for something new, not a pale
copy of what’s already around and available. Put your particular
expertise, talents, and personality to work for you. The world will
thank you for it.
L = Lucrative
There’s a bottom line to the IDEAL Business: It must be lucrative.

Your company must be able to compensate you fairly and provide
you with the financial security and the lifestyle you want to enjoy.
Otherwise, what’s the point?
By lucrative I don’t mean that you have a plan to make money—

eventually. Maybe a year or two? Okay. But you don’t want to
shortchange your life today. Time is not a renewable resource.
You want to be able to enjoy yourself and do the things that make
you happy now—not just when you retire. That means if you want
to take a vacation, you should be able to afford it. To experience
an IDEAL Life, you need to be able to pursue your interests and
hobbies, whether that means traveling, spending time with your
46
THE IDEAL LIFE
family, or taking a day off to play golf. One of the primary goals
of an IDEAL Business is that it affords you the kind of personal,
financial, and time freedom and flexibility you desire.
As an entrepreneur, you take more risks than the average person.

If you risk more, then the rewards should be bigger. The IDEAL
attributes—independent, distinctive, enjoyable, authentic, and
lucrative—all go a long way toward feeding into your ultimate
success. Later in this book we’re going to get more specific about
how to upsize your business income and make it as consistent
and healthy as possible.
You might not hit all five of the IDEAL qualities right away.
There may be times when you put yourself in a position in which
somebody else is calling the shots for a while, where you can’t
fulfill the unique position you staked out, where you are definitely
not having a good time trying to move the needle, or even when
you have to play a little game of pretend to pull something off.
It happens, and if it’s only for the short term, you may have to
grit your teeth and get through it. Even when it comes to making
money, it’s a truism that all entrepreneurs have ups and downs.
The idea of being lucrative may seem like a far-flung fantasy
when the money spigot sputters for a few weeks or even a few
months. That’s life.
Nevertheless, when one or two of them are missing long term,

you will feel the void they create. I always knew when one or
more of them was missing. That was why I began to apply a
litmus test to my life when I was a baseball coach. I understood
there were days that were going to be rough, days when I didn’t
want to go to work. I understood there might be a week or so
when I would be discouraged or down about what I had to do for
a living. However, if I went through two months of constantly
feeling that way…well, then, something had to change. As I’ve
progressed to other businesses, I found myself going back to
that litmus test time and time again. If negative feelings were
overpowering me for too long, then it was time to take some
action and turn things around.
47
Your window of tolerance might be shorter—or longer. Depends

on how much patience you’ve got and how much light is at the end
of that particular tunnel. But if you’re experiencing two months
of consecutive pain, you’ve definitely got a flaw in your business
approach that you need to correct. Most likely it has a lot to do
with at least one of the five IDEAL attributes we’ve discussed in
this chapter.
Even if you don’t have all five IDEAL attributes in place right
now, you can still focus on making that an ongoing goal. Because
when all five are in place, they allow you to fully engage with
your entrepreneurial efforts in a positive and fulfilling way.
Recently, basketball legend Tim Duncan retired. This five-time

NBA champion and two-time league MVP retired after nineteen
seasons with one team, the San Antonio Spurs. Not only was he
considered to be one of the best power forwards ever to play the
game, but he was also giving up a $20 million contract for one
more year of play.
Why would you walk away from something at which you’re so

good? Something that paid you that kind of money? Duncan had
a very short answer to that question:
“It wasn’t fun anymore.”
That sums up this chapter as well as my philosophy behind the

IDEAL Business. If it’s not fun, you’ve got to fix it. Life’s too
short, and there are plenty of other options to pursue. As an
entrepreneur, you’re fortunate enough to have given yourself the
freedom and the ability to pursue them.
48
THE IDEAL MIND-SET
CHAPTER 2
THE IDEAL MIND-SET
A while back, a software start-up entrepreneur hired me as a

consultant for the company he founded. He had done a lot of
hustling to get it off the ground. It was doing well, but to maintain
momentum and keep growing, he had to keep up the frantic pace.
We’ve all been there.
The problem was, this guy had three kids who were growing
almost as quickly as his business. He constantly talked about how
much he loved them and how important they were, but he never
spent much time with them or his wife. As a result, the family
seemed to be fraying at the edges. As a consultant who could
look at the big picture of his life, the disconnect and tension in
his priorities really bothered me.
“You’ve got to go spend some time with your family,” I told him
one day. “I don’t want to be a part of a business that gets you
divorced, even if it ends up selling for eight figures.”
He didn’t change anything. He was out of town for one daughter’s

birthday, then out of town for another daughter’s birthday. That
doubleheader made him realize he had a problem, so he tried to
make it up. He took the family somewhere for the weekend. He
tried to be there more nights. He told me he thought things were
better.
“Well,” I replied, “that depends. Here’s the real test. Are you
49
present when you're around them, or are you constantly checking

your phone for messages and emails? Are you focused on them,
or are you still focusing on work?”
He looked at me sheepishly. “Yeah, I sneak away and I do stuff

on my phone.”
“Well, that’s almost as bad as not being there at all,” I said.
A lot of entrepreneurs try to justify this kind of behavior by

saying things like, “But I’m doing all this for my family!” or,
“Yeah, I’m sacrificing some family stuff now, but it’s only so we
have a great future together.”
My response to this kind of rationalization is that your family

wants your time now more than they want your money later.
Which brings me to my next rule…
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #3: YOUR WORK SHOULD

ENRICH YOUR LIFE, NOT BE YOUR LIFE.
Your life should be more than work. All work, all the time leads
to burn out and exhaustion. That’s why it’s important to take on
what I call “the IDEAL mind-set.”
What do I mean by an IDEAL mind-set?
Well, as I hope I made clear in Chapter 1, creating the IDEAL

Business requires a purposeful mental shift away from doing
“business as usual.” An IDEAL mind-set represents the result of
that shift and embraces out-of-the-box thinking that will deliver
what we desire out of life.
As entrepreneurs, we’re all sometimes guilty of having more

energy than sense. Whenever we see any kind of opportunity to
grow our businesses, we jump at it. Sometimes that short-term
action sabotages our long-term aspirations, especially when we
50
THE IDEAL MIND-SET
don’t stop to think through our decisions and actions. That’s why
I say the most powerful word when it comes to business success
is this familiar one:
“No.”
So many entrepreneurs are afraid to say that magic two-letter

word. It’s normal, especially in the early stages when we’re
young. We’re starting out, and frankly, we aren’t worried about
our future as much as our present. It can be hard enough to pay
the bills and make a go of whatever our enterprise happens to be
without worrying about whether what we’re doing really squares
up with our life plan. We just figure if we work hard enough, that
alone will solve all our problems. But when we constantly chase
after the wrong things—or too many things—our actions trip up
our momentum.
Rather than doing everything and trying to grow in every

direction, try focusing on the specific outcome you desire. If you
don’t work toward the outcome you want, you mostly likely won’t
get it. Instead, you’ll arrive at a place where, even though you’ve
put in an enormous amount of “sweat equity,” your life still isn’t
what you want it to be. You’ll either still be running around like a
chicken without a head, as busy as ever because your business is
still totally dependent on your constant presence, or you’ll end up
burned out, sitting all alone on a pile of money, wondering what
to do with yourself because you haven’t taken the time to sustain
lasting personal relationships and meaningful outside pursuits.
Again, as Stephen Covey once said, “You want to begin with the
end in mind.”
It’s almost become a cliché these days to say, “Work smarter,

not harder.” But there’s a reason it’s a cliché; working smarter
instead of just working harder is a crucial element of the IDEAL
Business. It’s not that my philosophy is about avoiding hard work
or believing in the “make money in your pajamas” promise. It’s
51
about working from a strategic place. A focused strategy allows

you to make every minute of your work count, create higher
quality results from your efforts, and gain the time to enjoy a rich
personal life, all while you continue to build toward an outcome
that provides the kind of lifestyle you’d like for yourself and your
loved ones.
If you’re anything like me, you became (or desire to become) an

entrepreneur because you wanted to control your own destiny.
Unfortunately, it’s common to limit those ambitions to the
context of business. Outside of our businesses, we often fail to
pursue that kind of control in the outcomes we experience. Like
the client I wrote about at the beginning of this chapter, we allow
our work to creep in and steal from other important areas of our
lives. All my client had to do to make sure his family time was
enjoyable for all concerned was to turn off his phone—a simple
way of maintaining control of his personal life for a few hours.
For some reason, as entrepreneurs we forget that we do control all

the pieces of our lives. We know, of course, that we must control
all the pieces of our businesses to make them grow and succeed.
But we aren’t always so intentional about our lives outside of
business, and that ends up taking a toll. It may be fun to engage
in wishful thinking and believe that everything will magically
be okay at some unknown date in the future, but that attitude of
denial becomes destructive over time.
Our goal, as entrepreneurs and business leaders is to work on

making life—all of life—as enjoyable and healthy and strong as
we can now.
It’s All in Your Head
One of the biggest secrets to building a successful life and

business is believing we’re actually capable of doing it. And to
be fair to entrepreneurs, sometimes that’s a heavy lift.
52
THE IDEAL MIND-SET
Most people go to work for other folks and depend on them to

advance their careers. If that progression doesn’t happen, they go
to work for somebody else who will help them climb the ladder.
Entrepreneurs don’t have other people to help them up the ladder.
They must climb it all by themselves. As a matter of fact, there
is no ladder unless the entrepreneur makes one of their own (or
subcontracts to get the job done)!
This means an entrepreneur’s mind-set is all-important. When

we have the right attitudes in place, our success literally has
no ceiling. When our thinking is either negative or unfocused,
however, it’s hard to get anything off the floor. We all know
that person who repeatedly makes the same mistake. We say
to ourselves, “There goes old Bob again, screwing up a perfect
thing as only Bob can do.” The problem is “old Bob” never seems
to catch on to his self-defeating behavior. Next time around,
he’s failing himself in the exact same way, oblivious to his own
pattern.
For example, maybe you have a friend who consistently dates

the same personality type. Every time it’s a disaster because
this type is completely wrong for your friend. Yet after he ends
one relationship, he goes right ahead and starts a new one with
the very same personality type. Or, maybe you know someone
who constantly asks to borrow money from you because she
overspends every month. She always says she’s going to get her
budget together, but then next month she calls up asking for
another small loan.
According to a great deal of research, the reason we repeatedly

make the same mistakes is because we’re too preoccupied with
them in our daily lives. That obsession bugs the neurons in our
subconscious brain and motivates it to try and “help” us solve the
recurring problem. I put help in quotes because, unfortunately,
the brain’s solution just makes things worse. It motivates us to
commit the error all over again so it can study the process, and
all that does is continue the problematic loop!
53
The real solution—and again, this is according to the scientists—

is to stop dwelling on the past, because that just makes your brain
want to recreate everything you’re trying to escape. Instead, focus
on what you want to do—what you’re going to do.
That’s why I say, “It’s all in your head.” We have a choice in our
lives. We can either look forward and keep planning on how to
bring more prosperity and happiness into our lives, or we can
just keep going around in circles, reliving unproductive, self-
destructive or limiting patterns that keep us stuck—or worse,
push us backwards. We have the power; we just need to put it to
work for us.
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #4: IF YOU DON’T THINK

YOU CAN DO IT, YOU WON’T.
For more than two decades I’ve been studying the direct link
between our thoughts and the reality we create for ourselves, and
I’m here to tell you there is much truth behind this idea. One of
my favorite books on this subject is As a Man Thinketh by James
Allen, one of the pioneers in the inspirational thought movement.
Even though the book is more than a century old, the Bible verse
it’s based on, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs
23:7), articulates a truth that will always be relevant to our lives.
You don’t have to be a religious person to understand that. If you
haven’t already done so, I highly encourage you to read As a Man
Thinketh and examine your own thought processes and how they
impact your business and life.
Understanding precedes change. Before we can make a positive

change in our results, we must first understand what controls
our results. When we really begin to understand how our minds
work—and to what extent our thoughts control our outcomes—
we can unlock great transformations in every aspect of our lives.
This process of change and growth will undoubtedly force you
out of your comfort zone, but that’s the point. We all need to
break out of our individual mental boxes so we can grow beyond
where we are now.
54
THE IDEAL MIND-SET
Thinking Makes It So
Here’s a little more science to help you understand the power

of mind-set. Psychologist Martin Seligman, author of Learned
Optimism, has found that when things go wrong, pessimists
make it personal. Believing that negative results are inevitable,
pessimists aren’t inclined to even try to make things better. For
example, when they mess up a presentation, they chalk it up
to their own lack of talent as a public speaker. They think it’s
useless to try and improve themselves, so they never get better;
they continue to fail at the task.
Positive thinking can be a way out of your box and a key to your
success in all things. Let’s consider how the example of the person
whose presentation bombed might be different if that person were
an optimist. As a positive-minded person, that person would
believe improvement is always possible, and he would practice to
ensure improvement before the next presentation.
Again, science backs up the idea that positive thinking can affect
outcomes. Here are the results of two business-related studies
cited in Psychology Today:
• Economists who surveyed over one thousand American

CEOs found that more than 80 percent were found to be
“very optimistic.”
• In a study of salespeople over a two-year period, the optimists
outsold the pessimists by 37 percent.
This isn’t to say we should view life as a family-friendly, Disney

movie where happy endings are guaranteed. We know that’s
not true. Just as we need optimism to see possibilities, we need
realistic thinking to recognize threats and problems and tackle
them before they spin out of control. But, ultimately, if you don’t
allow yourself to see light at the end of a tunnel, it may be almost
impossible to find your way out of a dark spot.
55
Looking beyond the Obvious
My career started out in the fitness business, which means I know

how important regular exercise is to healthy muscles. Without it,
your muscles atrophy. Your mind is no different. If you don’t
exercise your mental muscles, if you don’t work to think beyond
your normal patterns, you miss important opportunities to
innovate and excel.
For example, one of the worst traps you can walk into is simply
duplicating what everyone else in your industry is doing. You
structure your company like they do, you market your products
and services like they do, and you know what? Everybody looks
at you as just another version of what’s already out there—only
an inferior version because the rest of your competitors were
doing it all first.
How does that help you stand out? It doesn’t.
In contrast, one of the great things you can do is look outside

your industry and see how someone else is achieving great things
with a business, then use those techniques—if they fit—in your
business.
For example, Robert Palmer began his mortgage business in

Florida right after the real estate crash of 2007, possibly the
worst time in recorded history to do so. And speaking of history,
up until that time, most mortgage brokers had worked with real
estate agents to get their clients’ business through referrals.
Palmer, however, applied proven direct marketing tactics to go
right after home buyers themselves to loan them money. The
result was, his company, RP Funding, became a fast and huge
success because he made himself a Category of One. (I’ll go into
more detail about this later in Chapter 6.)
Perception is reality. So much depends on how you look at things.

When you change your point of view and examine a situation
from another angle, you see things you might have missed, which
56
THE IDEAL MIND-SET
could provide you with valuable insight into that situation that
you otherwise might never have obtained. When you’re building
the IDEAL Business, it’s important to open your mind to all your
possibilities and not limit yourself to the tried-and-true business
models that your competition is using.
My next rule represents one of the most important lessons I

learned while developing an IDEAL mind-set, and it’s this:
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #5: JUST BECAUSE YOU

DON’T SEE IT DOESN’T MEAN IT ISN’T THERE.
I want to share with you a simple illustration of this concept

of seeing the invisible. Now, I’m sure you’re familiar with this
world-renowned corporate logo:
There’s something particularly brilliant about the design of this

logo that most people don’t even realize and it’s this: There is an
arrow deliberately created within the space between the “E” and
the “x.” Now, once you realize it’s there, you don’t forget about it.
You spot it every time. But if you don’t know it’s there, you don’t
think it exists. Why would you?
Now, here’s another logo that does something similar:
57
Most people only see the image in the top left corner of the
Goodwill logo as part of a smiling face. But, if you give it a
closer look, you’ll see it also forms the stylized “g” from the
Goodwill font.
Now, in both cases, millions of people look at those logos every

day and have no idea the arrow or the smiling “g” exist. But if
you pressed them to look at these logos in a different way, they’d
see them in a flash.
“Okay,” you might be saying. “What does this have to do with the
IDEAL mind-set?”
I’ll tell you. We often don’t see alternative ways of doing business
because we don’t allow ourselves to look beyond the status quo.
We accept the standard attitudes and traditional approaches
without looking past them toward other solutions that could
improve our entrepreneurial lives in all areas. However, if we
don’t consciously seek out opportunities to do things differently
in our businesses or our lives, we’re never going to see them—
which means there’s no way we’re ever going to try them. How
can we? We have no idea what they are!
Sometimes it’s necessary to believe in what’s invisible. We must

trust that we will see the paths to creating the life we want for
ourselves—and believe in our capabilities to successfully travel
those paths. If we don’t think that we can achieve great things,
we won’t achieve them. If we don’t believe we can create the
IDEAL Life and the IDEAL Business for ourselves, we won’t
make the attempt; we will accept our self-made limitations and
stay in the box that we’ve placed ourselves in.
We do have control over our outcomes, but we must dedicate

ourselves to pursuing them. One of my favorite quotes from
George Bernard Shaw puts it this way:
58
THE IDEAL MIND-SET
People are always blaming their

circumstances for what they are. I don't
believe in circumstances. The people who
get on in this world are the people who get
up and look for the circumstances they want,
and if they can't find them, make them.
To that, I offer a big “Amen.”
I’d like to wrap up this section by talking for a moment about

how my mind-set toward adversity has changed over time. I'll
open with the disclaimer that I've not experienced a real tragedy
at this point in my own personal life, so what I'm referring to as
adversity here is really a bump in the road. An obstacle. I’ve hit
plenty of those. In fact, I can think back to various points in my
own professional life where I encountered an obstacle and, at
times, felt like a failure. Maybe you can relate to my story.
When I graduated from college, I applied for more than sixty

graduate assistant or volunteer assistant coaching opportunities.
I didn’t get a single interview. At the time, I felt like a failure.
Ultimately, not having an assistant position left me available

to take the position as the head baseball coach and head
strength coach at my alma mater—a position that provided me
opportunities to learn and grow in a way that being a graduate
assistant might never have.
After building that program from perennial loser to national

competitor, I was forced to resign. My self-image was crushed.
Up to that point, being a college coach had been my identity.
Suddenly, I had to shift and take a different route professionally.
I ended up moving to Lexington, Kentucky, (where I met my
wife, Holly), and I became an entrepreneur and built a number
of businesses.
About a decade later, I hit a wall professionally and decided
59
to make a change. This time it was my choice and decision to

move away from something I built, but in some ways, that made
the change feel even more challenging. My decision impacted a
lot of other people, including my family, employees, clients, and
franchisees.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I'm having considerably more

impact than the previous organization ever had, and I’m having far
more fun doing it. Time and time again, my experience has been
that something better was just on the other side of a challenge.
Greater success was the reward for moving past an obstacle.
I'd suspect the same holds true for you.
I think in business, challenges are simply presented to weed out

those who aren't truly suited to be business owners. Great things
shouldn't come easily. If they did, they'd simply be ordinary.
Rather, obstacles, adversity, and challenges are opportunities to
reveal the greatness that lies within you. They're the precursor to
something that will likely be even better than your past or present
situation. With that in mind, embrace the things that seem like
challenges today; they are opportunities for a better tomorrow.
In the next chapter, we’re going to move from the theoretical

to the practical with some hands-on advice on building your
IDEAL Business. Specifically, we’ll look at what needs to go
into its foundation so you can build the kind of success you want.

60
THE IDEAL FOUNDATION
CHAPTER 3
I worked at a state university for more than seven years. The

standard annual pay increase for most who worked there was
three percent. You got a raise, basically, for showing up to work.
As long as you didn’t screw up, you could look forward to that
bump in salary every year like clockwork. Not only that, but
you got two weeks of paid vacation, paid sick days, good health
insurance, and your hours were fixed (9:00 a.m. to around 4:30
p.m.). You could go home at night, completely disconnect from
your job, and enjoy the evening as you saw fit.
Pretty good deal, right?
If you’re an entrepreneur (or want to be one), that “good deal” is

okay, and maybe it’s a good enough place to be while you turn a
side hustle into a profitable business. But most people who decide
to be entrepreneurs do so because we want more than the salaried
life offers. We want to be in charge of our income, our hours, and
our lives.
However, do you truly feel in charge? Or do you feel like your

business is running you?
I consult with a lot of entrepreneurs, and I get to see close-up how

much they do and how much time they put in. Their commitment
is total. I also see how many people they help with their products
and services, as well as how they impact their communities as
business owners.
61
What they earn in return is often, well, mortifying. They’re not

making the money they should. They’re not able to take vacations
or days off. They carry work in their head 24/7. Many don’t have
401ks or IRAs or any of the other normal employee perks, even
though they’re the bosses. That’s why many of them come to me:
They want help making some tweaks to turn things around.
When I start digging in, I discover how hard that assignment is

going to be. Because, believe it or not, they never took the time to
design their businesses with those positive goals in mind.
We entrepreneurs take more risks than salaried employees.

We take on much more responsibility. We make a significant,
positive impact in the marketplace and in our communities by
contributing to the economy, creating jobs, and adding value to
an area. So why shouldn’t we realize bigger rewards than the
average employee? Doesn’t it sound like we deserve them?
Here’s where business is a whole lot like life: Just because you
deserve something doesn’t mean you’re going to get it. That’s
why you must be proactive about making sure you get those
rewards. If you want bigger rewards (and more income), you
must be intentional about the choices you make as you create and
structure your business.
Personal choice is an important ongoing theme you’ll see repeated

as we get into the nuts and bolts of creating the IDEAL Business.
It all starts here. In this chapter we’ll look at four basic principles
you need to put into place so you can build the strongest and
most fruitful foundation for future growth, success, and the best
work-life balance. These principles apply whether you’re starting
a new business or, if like me, you’d like to make the shift in your
current business to make it IDEAL.
Stick to these basics and you’ll set yourself up for great, positive
results in the years to come.
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IDEAL Principle 1: It All Starts with You
Here’s what I consider to be a shocking fact: On every strategic

business planning tool I’ve ever seen, personal objectives are
never made a part of the discussion.
Isn’t that a little strange? I don’t mean to disparage these planning

tools; I’ve certainly learned a lot from them. But they are normally
designed for big businesses with corporate structures rather than
the entrepreneurial start-up. Often, these kinds of planning tools
are also typically the only ones we can find online. Personal
goals don’t have a place in these corporate planning tools so our
individual goals aren’t given a chance to be part of the mix.
If that’s the model or the kind of planning tool you started with,
the IDEAL Business approach will fill that gap. We’re going to
flip that picture and start the planning process with personal
priorities rather than professional ones. Right now, I want you
to write down the three things that are most important to you
personally in terms of what you want out of your life—your true
passions. The choices are up to you, of course, but here are a few
items to spark ideas for the kinds of things that could end up on
your list:
 Work
 Family
 Friends
 Faith
 Travel
 Personal Fitness
 Exciting Experiences
 Personal Growth
 Charity
Now, let’s take a closer look at the three passions you picked.
Go back and look through your bank account records for the past
63
three months. Analyze how much of your financial resources

you allocated to the three things you picked. For example, if you
traveled, how much did you spend on a trip?
Not every one of the three passions you chose will have a financial
component; for example, if you’re a Game of Thrones fanatic, the
only cost is your HBO subscription. That is, of course, unless
you’re into buying swords, helmets, and stuffed dragons. Now,
that could cost you some money. The point is, you can’t judge
every item strictly by how much you spend on them, which is
why I’d like you to do a second exercise with your list of three
biggest passions. Calculate how much time you’ve spent doing
those three activities in the past month. If something is truly vital
to the enjoyment of your life, there should be an ample investment
of your time. If that time component isn’t there—for example, if
you say family is important to you and you found you only spent
a few hours on family activities in the past thirty days—the lack
of time indicates a problem with your priorities.
The purpose of all this calculation is to determine not only

your life passions, but how much time and money you’re able to
commit to them. If that commitment is lacking, if you’re not able
to enjoy your passions, then it’s time make fulfilling them a part
of your business strategy. In other words, make the business work
for you, not the other way around.
You may even be lucky enough to be able to make your passions an

integral part of your business. I always had a passion for personal
fitness, and that’s the field where I found entrepreneurial success.
Which brings me to my next rule…
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #6: DO WHAT YOU LOVE,

AND YOU’LL NEVER HATE GOING TO WORK.
Makes sense, right?

64
IDEAL Principle 2: Play to Your Strengths, Understand

Your Values
In addition to identifying your passions, I want you to take some

time to identify your strongest talents, skills, and traits. Your
business should reflect what’s best about you and what excites
you. You don’t want to base it on your weak points or what you
hate doing.
As you consider your talents, skills, and positive traits, think

about what people compliment you on. Consider the reasons
people hire you or come to your facility or office. We’ll talk more
about this when we talk about branding, but for now, identify the
things about you that have already brought you some degree of
success and write them down.
If you're still not sure about what your specific strengths might
be, send an email to five different people and say, "What do
you think are my top three strengths?" They’ll answer with
suggestions that will get your brain working in the right direction.
Of course, even though you’ve identified those strengths, you

need to know that running a business makes you deal with areas
that don’t involve your strengths—areas that require abilities you
don’t possess or don’t care about. The trick is to structure your
business in such a way that you minimize your involvement in
those areas and maximize your involvement in roles in which
you excel.
For example, you may hate the selling part of your business, but
that’s certainly a crucial part of any profit-oriented operation.
You may need to put in place a strong salesperson who can do
the heavy lifting in that area. Or to use another example, you may
stink at accounting. If so, you need to find a resource that can
help you make your numbers add up.
It’s all about playing to your strengths and passions. For those
65
tasks that simply aren’t in your wheelhouse, you want to delegate

and elevate. Find people whom you trust to handle the parts of
the business you want to avoid and, at the same time, get yourself
to a position where you feel like you don’t have to get your hands
dirty with them. Instead, just keep a close eye on those who are
taking care of those tasks to ensure you’re still getting the results
you expect or want.
In addition to your strengths, at this juncture you also want to

identify and list your core values. Obviously, you want to make
sure your business doesn’t violate your values. For example,
family, integrity, and my responsibility to coach others to
maximize their potential are some of my big core values. Those
are some of the values I want to be known for in my work.
Why is it important to identify your core values? Because these

values become the filter for all your decisions. Either a choice
fits with those values or it doesn’t. If a business opportunity takes
me away from my family for a month or two at a time, I won’t
commit to it. It violates one of my core values and I don’t want to
lose that family connection just for a few more dollars.
It's hard for us to reach our potential as business owners unless

we play to our strengths and stick to our core values. It’s also hard
for us to feel fulfilled personally if we are continually forced
to compromise our belief systems. That’s why this principle
of playing to your strengths and understanding your values is
foundational to building a company you’ll enjoy running and will
feel proud of for a very long time.
IDEAL Principle 3: Determine What Success

Looks Like to You
When I ask the question, “What does success look like to you?”
I’m not just talking about how big your company becomes or how
high your annual revenues might go. I’m talking about your own
long-term goals. I’m talking about answering the most important
66
question of your strategic process: Why did you start a business

in the first place?
Why did you assume all this risk and responsibility? Why did
you decide to take on the necessary sacrifices involved with
entrepreneurship to go out on your own? Why didn’t you just take
the easy way out and go work for some big company?
Here are some common answers I hear from entrepreneurs:
• “I want to build a business that genuinely helps a lot of

people.”
• “I want to earn a certain level of income, and this is the only
way I can do it.”
• “I want to be able to control my own destiny, not be at the
mercy of a big corporate bureaucracy.”
Whatever your answer is, it must be strong enough to sustain you

through the grind of keeping your business running. There will
be days when it will seem like too much. However, if you keep
why you’re doing this top-of-mind, it helps see you through the
difficulties and keeps you on track. Think of your why as the
destination for your own mental GPS system. If you don’t have an
end point programmed, your GPS can’t map out a path for you.
But when you know where you want to go, you can figure out a
path to get there.
What is your end goal—your purpose for being in business? Once

you’ve identified your reason(s), write out a short and impactful
mission statement for both yourself and your business. In other
words, figure out what you ultimately want out of your business
and what you want to get out of it for yourself.
Once you have those big goals in your head, it’s time to figure out
how you reach them. That will require some reverse engineering
through setting some short-term process goals. Here’s a quick
example of what a process goal is all about: Let’s say, as a
67
personal trainer, I had a client who wanted to lose twenty pounds

in ten weeks. How would I help this person do that? We’d set
weekly targets of losing just two pounds each week and develop
a plan to accomplish that. Then, on a weekly basis we’d check in
to see how she was progressing and amend the plan if needed.
It’s important to create those same kinds of objectives for yourself

in your entrepreneurial role. Process goals help you incrementally
close in on your larger business and personal goals. Take some
time and think through a few. I suggest you use the proven
SMART system when setting these types of goals. SMART is an
acronym that stands for the following:
 Specific
 Measurable
 Achievable
 Relevant
 Time-bound (i.e. each goal has a deadline or series of
deadlines for being met)
Once you establish where you want to go, reverse engineer

your goals. Determine exactly how you’re going to make your
goals a reality. It’s great to say you want to expand your square
footage by 50 percent, but that goal does you no good unless you
specifically state how you’re going to fund the expansion.
If you break process goals into smaller actionable pieces, you’ll

be amazed at what you can achieve. One business owner who
consulted with me was seriously overworking himself. A major
part of the problem was he didn’t believe he could change the
situation. I had him cut his workload on just two days of the
week. We started by just ending his workday an hour earlier than
he had previously been stopping. Once that seemed manageable,
we shortened it by one more hour. He began handing off some
simple tasks that he’d traditionally just defaulted to doing. He
became more efficient because he was no longer spreading his
tasks out in a longer day, and he began to think, “This is possible.
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I can do more to get myself out from under this constant stress.”
Small wins contribute heavily to big victories, and when you
make a little bit of progress each day, you end up hitting a big
target relatively quickly.
IDEAL Principle 4: Create a Culture of Production
One of my favorite words is producer. To build your IDEAL

Business and to meet its goals, you must produce; nobody’s going
to do it for you. On the client or customer side, it’s your job to
produce the results they’re seeking, the high-level experience that
keeps them coming back, and the products they want to buy.
That’s the challenge every entrepreneur faces. I know you work

hard to deliver to your clients or patients, but I’m going to offer
one more challenge for you: Work hard for yourself by producing
the necessary business revenue and growth that will allow you to
not only prosper but to also provide both your security and your
freedom.
Your first step toward that is to create a culture of production

where you’re keeping score. Metrics must be involved in what
you’re doing so you can determine if you’re making the kind of
progress you want to make. Within those metrics, targets must be
set so you can judge whether you’re getting the essential things
done. Either you achieve your numbers or you don’t. It makes
things simple.
The metrics you choose to measure will depend on what your

specific business is all about. Here are a few common categories
where keeping score can be crucial:
• Number of clients/customers/patients per day

• Revenues earned per day
• Number of referrals received per week
• Number of sales calls successfully completed per day
• Number of conversions of those sales calls
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You can wait and calculate your daily averages at the end of
the month if you want, but it’s good to track the most important
numbers of your business sooner rather than later so you can take
steps to fix any trends that might be going in the wrong direction.
Apply some life metrics to your situation too. Are you taking
enough vacation days so you don’t get burnt out? Are you
spending enough personal hours either with family or doing
something you love that’s not about work?
Keeping score is critical to understanding how well you are

(or aren’t) doing. Imagine an NFL season where nobody kept
track of touchdowns, field goals, etc. Teams wouldn’t be ranked,
standings wouldn’t exist, and stats wouldn’t matter. Fans would
get bored, teams wouldn’t be motivated, and the whole league
would fall apart. Keeping score keeps everybody on their toes—
including you and your employees. Good metrics ensure that you
stay productive.
One final note: One of the best ways to create a culture of

production and fulfill your role as a producer is to surround
yourself with achievers. This goes for your friends, your
employees, and your business associates. Having motivated
people in your circle helps motivate you. They inspire you with
their accomplishments, and their positive can-do attitudes bring
a lot of good energy into your life. This is such an important
thing to remember that it’s worth a rule of its own:
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #7: YOU DO BETTER WHEN

THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU WANT TO DO BETTER.
Plato said, “The beginning is the hardest part of the work.” I think
it’s also the most important. Putting these four basic principles to
work in your business will ensure that success will look the way
you want it to. That’s as ideal a situation as you can imagine!
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GUARDRAILS
CHAPTER 4
GUARDRAILS
Let’s talk about guardrails. No, this isn’t going to be a lecture on

highway safety. I want to talk instead about theoretical guardrails.
Confused? It really isn’t that complicated. Read on and you’ll see
what I’m getting at.
So far in this book, I’ve shared a lot of ideas that I believe can help
any entrepreneur focus on building a prosperous and satisfying
life. But I know a few of you may be thinking: General principles
aren’t practical. I have to do what works for my business, and
that’s a very day-to-day thing. I can’t be guided by theoretical
concepts; I have to deal with reality.
It may be true that you need to make many different decisions

every day at your business. These decisions are mostly operational
and revolve around how to get the best results for your bottom
line. I get that. I also get that your business may be different
from mine, but where your business and mine (and every other
business out there) line up is the fact that the different choices
we make every day are informed by the specific vision we have
about what we want our businesses to be. The choices we make
eventually add up to create a very specific outcome.
It’s not unlike driving a car. Sometimes you’ve got to step on the
gas; sometimes you’ve got to hit the brakes. Sometimes you’re
on a big open freeway with the car on cruise control, and other
times you’re trapped in traffic, stopping and starting every few
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seconds. Sometimes you’ve got a smooth ride, and other times

your car suddenly breaks down and you end up on the shoulder,
calling for help. And sometimes you make a wrong turn and you
have no idea where you are!
On almost every highway these days, you’re going to find

guardrails to the side—especially around sharp curves and on
bridges. Those guardrails are there, of course, to keep you from
flying off the road if you should lose control of your car. Well,
I’d like you to think of your own ambitions for your life and
your business as being like those guardrails. If you keep them in
place and remind yourself of their importance, you’ll keep your
business—and your life—straight on course for success.
Before I go further, I want to give some credit to my friend and

entrepreneur extraordinaire John Berardi who introduced me to
the idea of guardrails. I have to thank him for allowing me to
borrow the term; I think it’s a great metaphor for how you can
keep yourself on track toward your goals.
Guardrails represent your rules of engagement. When you

keep those rules in mind, it forces you to take a few steps back
from those constant and sometimes overwhelming day-to-day
decisions and, instead, consider them within the context of your
big picture objectives (and how you want to attain them). That
kind of perspective motivates you to ask yourself questions
like: What matters to me the most in this situation? What will
advance this business—and what might make it regress? How
does this decision affect my overall quality of life? Suddenly you
start steering yourself toward your own personal happiness.
Without those guardrails in place, however, you end up reacting

instead of acting. You let outside circumstances—instead of
your heart and mind—dictate what you do. Yes, life is always a
delicate balance between what you want and what the world says
you can have. But don’t you want to at least control as much of
your destiny as you can?
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GUARDRAILS
Now, you’ve probably never thought of guardrails as being

magical, but the kind I’m talking about in this chapter are, at least
to me. Yet, when I communicate this basic idea of establishing
rules of engagement, the reaction of some entrepreneurs is, “Well,
if I try to enforce these guardrails, if I stick to these rules on an
ongoing basis, that’s going to limit my success.” They see these
guardrails as hindering their happiness, not enabling it.
I’ve found the exact opposite to be true. Parameters force you to

be more creative, which, in turn, creates more opportunity. Your
guardrails put you in solution mode. You end up pushing yourself
a little harder to seek a path that takes you to the outcome you
seek, rather than settling for a quick and dirty way out that
compromises your long-term plan. With guardrails, you learn
to adapt and bring new ideas into your business instead of just
doing what you’ve always been doing. Or worse, playing follow-
the-leader with a competitor. They also help immensely with my
next rule:
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #8: MAKE THINGS HAPPEN;

DON’T LET THINGS HAPPEN TO YOU.
Now, let’s talk about the danger of not abiding by this particular
guardrail:
The Danger of Drift
As I said, your guardrails keep you on the road toward the

destination you have in mind. Without them…
You drift. And that, to me, is an entrepreneur’s worst-case

scenario.
Michael Hyatt talks about the danger of drifting in his best-

selling book Living Forward. Drifting is when you just wake up
and go through the motions of what you think you’re supposed to
be doing. You act like an employee instead of a business owner,
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and that’s not why any of us decided to become an entrepreneur.

If you remember the old Dunkin’ Donuts commercial where the
guy in the DD uniform leaves in the morning saying, “Time to
make the donuts,” then comes back at night and says, “I made
the donuts”—and he does this again and again. Well, that’s just
what can happen when you don’t make conscious choices about
your life and your business. You just allow things to take their
own course, trusting in magic or fate to take you to your desired
income rather than putting in the effort to get there yourself.
How unfulfilling is that? You’re still taking on a giant chunk

of responsibility by running your own business, and you’re still
putting in an enormous amount of time to make it work. But at
the end of the day, all that time and all those headaches just add
up to you treading water—and while you’re treading water, the
current might just take you who-knows-where.
Drifting is sometimes just the result of starting out life with

lowered expectations. Maybe, like me, you’re from a small,
economically-depressed town where the attitude was “Hey, if
you can get a job, you're in pretty good shape!" No need to think
much beyond that. Even though you went ahead and started your
own business, you still might have put a low ceiling on what you
could achieve with that business.
Or maybe other people have told you there are limits to how high
you can climb. It happens. Usually that kind of message comes
from people who are highly insecure about their own self-worth.
Most don’t mean to be malicious when they tell you that you can't
do something; they just can’t see how it can be done. They have
no experience with the level of success you’re aiming at. Often,
they think they’re protecting you. And sometimes they want to
keep you in their orbit. They don't want you to reach for the stars,
because if you do, that might disrupt their own comfort zone by
challenging them to do more with their own lives.
Whatever the reason, remember this: It’s up to you—and only
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GUARDRAILS
you—to decide what you want. That means you get to decide
whom you'll work with, how you're going to work, when you're
going to work, and how you’re going to structure things in your
business—and in your life.
You do all that by putting your own personal guardrails in place

and keeping them in mind when you’re making choices, both big
and small.
The Guidance of Guardrails
Let me go back to the man I mentioned earlier, the man who

introduced me to the concept of guardrails, John Berardi. John is
the co-founder of Precision Nutrition, the world's largest online
nutrition coaching and professional education company, so he’s
no slouch when it comes to entrepreneurial effort. That’s why
it was a little bit of a surprise when he shared one of his own
personal guardrails with me. He said, “Look, I only want to work
Monday through Thursday, seven hours a day."
Pretty hardcore, right? But he does his best to stick to it.
Now, is this always going to work out for him? No. There will
undoubtedly be a weekend event he wants to attend or a Friday
business commitment he just can’t get out of. That happens. But
that schedule, that Monday-through-Thursday, seven-hours-a-
day guardrail is what guides him. Those are the parameters he
works within. He’s got at least four good reasons for them too
(because that’s the number of kids he has, and he wants to spend
Fridays with them). Often he’ll just take the kids out of school
that day so he can make that happen. Too bad he wasn’t my dad,
because that would have been fine with me!
Another one of his guardrails was to build a world-class education

program without having to travel. That desire inspired a very
unconventional outcome that produced amazing results: His
business doesn’t have a corporate office. It used to, but nobody
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actually showed up there to work. They all communicated with

each other virtually, so there was no need for them to physically be
in the same room. Even without a corporate office, they managed
to build an amazingly successful program. That guardrail of not
having to travel didn’t limit John’s aspirations or the company’s
possibilities. No, it energized them.
When you say something like, "Hey, I'm going to work four days a
week and try to limit myself to seven hours a day," then suddenly
you’ve put yourself in a position where you must say "No" to a
ton of the trivial things that occupy most people’s days. You don’t
have time for bureaucracy. You don’t have time to chase your
own tail. You only have time to attend to what’s necessary and
not much else. Perhaps that’s all the time you need.
Now, this isn’t to say that I haven’t gotten a business email from
John on a Saturday. Or a call on a Thursday night. That happens.
But I’m sure when he finds himself doing too much of that kind
of thing when it’s supposed to be his downtime, he needs to
course correct.
John is not a guy who wants to drift.
As for me? Here are a few of my guardrails:
First of all, I don’t want to be gone more than two full days at a
time for anything unless I’ve got some family with me, either my
wife or both my wife and kids. So when somebody asks me, “Hey,
wouldn’t you love to go to China for a speaking engagement?” I
don’t think about it too long. Actually, I don’t think about it at all;
I just turn it down. The conversation is over.
Another important guardrail? The ability to work at home. I don’t

like to waste time commuting. I’m more comfortable in my own
house and function better there, anyway. So why leave? That’s
why I do as much from home as possible.
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GUARDRAILS
A couple of years ago, I put a huge temporary guardrail in place,

a guardrail so big it scared me a little. That was when I decided to
coach both of my boys’ baseball teams. If you’ve been involved in
youth sports, you know what kind of time commitment coaching
one team demands, let alone two teams. Every game and practice
from late March until mid-July that year? Those were built into
my calendar—and everything else I did during that time was
scheduled around them.
Even that brutal guardrail didn’t impact my ability to grow

my business. I really believe that, in many cases, it facilitated
efficiency and productivity. As I said earlier, boundaries force
you to seek creative solutions that you might never have thought
of otherwise. You try them out, and some of those new solutions
become vital parts of your business approach because they save
you time, provide quicker results, and/or make your life easier.
That last point alone is enough for me.
Before you move on to the next chapter, I encourage you to think

about the guardrails you want—or need—in your business and
life. Here are a few questions to help you set up your guardrails:
1. What should be on your professional not to-do list?

2. What are the 20 percent of things that happen in your
business that you should be spending the majority of your
time?
3. What should you be doing less of, either because you don’t
enjoy it or because it’s not the best use of your time for the
success of the business?
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IDEAL LEADERSHIP
CHAPTER 5
IDEAL LEADERSHIP
Leadership. You can’t avoid it. No entrepreneur can. That’s

because, ultimately, it’s your business (or businesses). You’re
steering the ship, you’re choosing the course, and you’re making
the final calls. That’s an awesome responsibility. You’re the
ultimate decision-maker, and those decisions can’t help but have
a huge impact on not only your success, but the success of the
people who work for you.
In the previous chapter, I talked about the kinds of personal

guardrails that keep you from flying off the road. When you want
to create certain boundaries in your life, these guardrails can be
invaluable. However, your entrepreneurial journey is about more
than staying on the road, of course. It’s about putting yourself on
the right road—the road to success—so you can achieve the best
outcome for you, your team, and your customers or patients.
Most of us, however, are ill-prepared for the kind of leadership

role our businesses require. Instead, we get thrown into the deep
end and are forced to find our way without much experience in
or knowledge about how to effectively lead. That was certainly
the case with me when I became a baseball coach at the tender
age of twenty-three. I certainly didn’t know what I was doing.
I had to sort out for myself what worked and what didn’t. I did
that by watching how coaches I admired did their jobs. I did it by
reading books written by respected leadership experts like John
Maxwell. Most importantly, I learned by doing, every single day
on the field.
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I guess I picked up the right leadership lessons because I believe

I did right by my baseball team. And after that, I did right by my
businesses. I had integrated some core leadership principles into
my life. These core principles never let me down. Over the years,
I’ve broken them down into seven rules that have served me well.
Yes, that’s right; you get seven rules in one single chapter.
Now, most of these rules may seem like common sense, but it’s
surprising how uncommon common sense can be. That’s why I
try to keep the following “Magnificent Seven” top-of-mind in my
own leadership challenges, and I hope you will as well. Together,
they reflect a unified philosophy about leadership that I continue
to hold to this day, which I’ll share at the close of this chapter.
Rule of Leadership #1: The Golden Rule Still Works
This rule is short and sweet, and it comes down to this: Treat
people the way you’d want to be treated.
We don’t really exist in an era anymore where we can bully great

work out of people. And I think that’s a good thing. It’s hard
for folks who are scared and shaking, wondering what abuse the
boss is going to heap on them, to really function at a high level.
They’re afraid to take chances, even when they should. They’re
afraid to tell the person in charge bad news, even when they need
to.
Bullying causes employees to always “color inside the lines.”

They rarely grow or innovate because doing something different
brings the danger of doing something wrong. Your team doesn’t
feel encouraged to find new and better solutions; rather, they
follow instructions down to the letter to ensure their survival.
Think about what motivated you to over-deliver over the years.

Think about what kind of behavior by authority figures such as
parents, teachers, and former bosses pushed you forward, instead
of making you feel like you had to cower in a corner. I’m willing
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IDEAL LEADERSHIP
to bet a positive approach, backed up by a genuine interest in

your success, gave you the confidence you needed to improve
and grow to become the entrepreneur you are today.
Rule of Leadership #2: Get Everybody Rowing Together
As I said, a leader sets the direction for an enterprise. The big

problem comes when not everyone involved believes in or works
toward that direction.
You’ve probably seen the ancient galley ships in old movies like
Ben Hur, the massive ones used by the Romans and the Greeks
that had as many as a hundred men in the lower deck rowing at
once to propel them forward. A hundred guys rowing at once, of
course, provides immense power and speed to any sea-worthy
vessel.
But imagine the difference in the speed of one of those ships if

all those rowers decided not to row simultaneously. Or worse,
some of them decided to row in the opposite direction. That’s
going to make for a slow and not-so-satisfying journey.
That metaphor applies to your business. When you and your

people all believe in and work toward the same goals, you’ve
got a much greater chance of achieving them because you’re all
“rowing in unison.” That unison creates a directed force that
outstrips the competition with ease.
I learned this truth when I was a baseball coach. It was more than
a matter of all of us wanting to make it to the collegiate World
Series; it was also all of us believing in the process that would
get us there. The majority of my players bought into the systems
I put in place, and that fact alone helped us surge past a lot of
better-funded teams with higher-profile recruits.
That’s why it’s important for you as a business leader to explain

to your people not only what goal you’re trying to reach, but the
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how and why behind that goal. The more your team understands
your approach and the reasons behind it, the more likely they
will end up reaching their potential and enjoying their role on the
team. When everyone is “rowing” together, you’re going to speed
toward your destination.
As the leader, you must communicate your vision clearly and

on a regular basis. If someone balks at it, talk with them about
their concerns. Maybe they have a point, and maybe you need to
adjust your thinking based on what they say. Or, it might be they
misunderstand your intentions. Whatever the case, clear the air
and make sure everyone is moving in the same direction.
A shared vision is a powerful lever for success.
Rule of Leadership #3: Leverage Your People’s Strengths
Back in 2001, business consultant Jim Collins wrote the massive

bestseller, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the
Leap... and Others Don't. The book resonated with me at the
time and still does to this day. Collins’ main point was this:
Businesses succeed through the simple act of hiring the right
people, putting them in the right jobs—and never letting go of
that disciplined approach.
When your people come in with an attitude of achievement and

are allowed to play to their strengths within your organization,
they stay motivated and tend to excel in their performance. And
that, of course, benefits everyone within your business. In my
own experience, I’ve found that entrepreneurs who stick to that
philosophy end up smelling like roses, even after they’ve gone
through some times that stunk on ice.
Collins uses, as an example, David Maxwell, who became CEO

of Fannie Mae in 1981. At that time, the company was losing
a million dollars a day, and the board wanted to know exactly
what Maxwell was going to do about it. Maxwell responded
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IDEAL LEADERSHIP
that they shouldn’t be asking a “what” question, they should be

asking a “who” question—as in who should make up the kind
of management team that would get them out of this mess. Who
had the strongest work ethics, the specific talents needed, and the
drive needed to turn things around?
With that game plan, Maxwell examined his current management

team. He told them what he required out of them to turn things
around. Fourteen of the twenty-six execs ended up departing,
and Maxwell replaced them with some of the best, smartest, and
hardest-working executives in the world of finance. And only
then did he turn his attention to the “what” question.
The result? At the end of Maxwell’s CEO tenure, Fannie Mae

was no longer losing a million a day. It was earning four million
a day.
Does this law seem to contradict the previous one about having a
shared vision? Yes and no. The idea here is that you can’t follow
through with the shared vision without having the right people
to help you pursue that vision. With the right people, when your
vision does need to evolve, you’ll have a team that can help ensure
your new direction’s success.
As we all know, marketplaces change, economic conditions

change, industries change, and that means your goals might have
to change too. That’s a lot easier to accomplish when you have
smart and talented people in place. The right team members can
help you adjust to changing conditions and maybe even see them
coming before you do.
I first learned this rule of leadership as a baseball coach. It was

a necessity. I not only had to get the right players on my team, I
also had to figure out the roles to which they were most suited.
Was a certain pitcher best as a starter or a reliever? Did a batter
produce better batting in the third spot or the sixth? Was some
guy better at catching balls in the infield or the outfield?
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The process isn’t that much different in the business world. If

you put people in roles closely aligned with their unique talents,
everybody's going to be better off. They’ll be happier and more
fulfilled, and because of that, they’ll deliver a higher level of
work.
Rule of Leadership #4: Catch People Doing Something Right
My last rule sang the praises of hiring and supporting great

employees who work hard to boost the performance of your
business. In this rule, we’re going to talk about what you can do
to boost the performance of your employees.
I think you’ll agree it’s a whole lot more common for bosses
to focus their energies on trying to catch their people doing
something wrong.I prefer to catch them doing something right.
As a leader, I know I must accept this fact: When I hand off a

responsibility or give a new role to a trusted employee, they’re
probably going to nail 90 to 95 percent of that assignment. Most
of what they do for my business is going to be spot on. But that
other 5 to 10 percent? They’re going to mess that part up.
I’ve learned that there’s no point in me getting upset about it. It’s
not like I’m perfect; I’ve been known to make a few mistakes
here and there. We all do. It’s part of being human. So I’m not
going to judge an employee’s overall performance by the small
mistakes that fall within that 5 to 10 percent range. It’s the price
I pay for the nine out of ten things that they’re going to do well
that make my life easier.
However, I do see a lot of business owners who insist on shining

a spotlight on that 5 or 10 percent that goes wrong. They look
right past the fact that an employee is doing almost everything
right and instead obsess on trying to catch their people doing
things wrong. It’s a negative, oppressive outlook and one I’ve
been a victim of perpetuating.
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IDEAL LEADERSHIP
I spent too many years as a baseball coach not really enjoying a

win on the field. Most of the time, a victory was just a relief to
me. During a game, in which we were leading, I would worry so
much about all the ways we could screw it up. By the time the
ninth inning was done so was I. I was so emotionally exhausted, I
couldn’t get as excited as I should have been about gaining a “W.”
Instead, I just felt lucky to get out alive!
I finally realized my attitude was not only harmful to me, but also
to the rest of the team. If I can’t fully celebrate a win, then my
players are going to see it in my attitude and not be able to enjoy
it as much either. With a little more experience under my belt,
however, I was finally able to let go of what the team might have
done wrong and embrace what they did right. I learned that the
only way to reinforce confidence and create a culture of positive
teamwork was to highlight our highs, not our lows.
That was a big turning point for me, and it can be for you too.
When the business succeeds, make sure everyone feels good
about that success—especially yourself!
Rule of Leadership #5: Lift Up Your People, Lift Up Your

Business
Part of the reason you became an entrepreneur was, undoubtedly,

because you didn’t want to limit yourself. By running your own
business, there would be nobody above you to stop you from
growing and becoming as great a business leader as you wanted
to be. And yet many of us put that kind of ceiling on our own
people’s development.
We tell a new employee that we’re paying them to do a particular

job and that it’s their responsibility to learn how to do that job.
Then all we leave them with is a training manual or, worse, a list
of their duties. If they’ve got anything on the ball, then they learn
how to fulfill those duties, but not much else. Why? Because we
don’t coach them or educate them about how to do their job to the
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highest degree possible or even how to live up to our company’s

brand standards (more on those later).
True leadership isn’t just about filling an open position and

walking away from the person you hired. In my opinion, it’s about
helping to make those employees as good as they can possibly be
by encouraging their talents and helping them to use those talents
within the business.
In the fitness business, I would ask my clients, “What’s your

goal? Where do you want to get with your workouts?” I would
then assess where they currently were and design a program to
help them realize their physical fitness ambitions. I like to do the
same with my employees. I believe if I really want to bring out the
best in them, I need to invest in their growth and performance.
Does that sound like a ridiculous idea? Like some kind of make-
believe fairy-tale business idea that can’t work in the real world?
If it does, let me talk briefly about another company very much
associated with make-believe and fairy tales—but is also very
much committed to fiscal success. That company is Disney, one
of the companies I admire most in today’s business world. Their
corporate philosophy maintains that developing their “cast” (i.e.,
their workforce) is even more important than taking care of their
guests. They know an amazing workforce can’t help but create an
amazing experience for Disney customers.
To quote the company’s “Be My Guest” brochure detailing their

customer service policies: “The magic of Disney’s customer
service has a quality that leads to superior organizational
performance, building Guest satisfaction and increasing brand
loyalty.”
When you develop five people in their job roles, suddenly you
have five times the reach with your brand than if you were doing
it yourself. If you do it with ten people, you get ten times the
reach. By taking the time to optimize your employees’ talents,
you grow your business from the inside out. They, in turn, are
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IDEAL LEADERSHIP
then going to be able to serve your customer base at an extremely

high level.
Rule of Leadership #6: Do as You Say
Parents are, in a way, the ultimate leaders. Their kids look up to

them to learn how to behave and how to function in the world.
It’s a process that begins at birth; the impact a mom or dad has
on that young impressionable mind is extraordinary. That’s why
parents must be careful. If they exhibit bad patterns in their own
lives, the child is going to pick up on them and imitate them. For
instance, if a parent swears like a truck driver around the house,
that parent shouldn’t be surprised when a toddler suddenly starts
throwing around f-bombs like they were building blocks. The
kid simply doesn’t know better and assumes that’s what they’re
expected to do.
In any leadership role, the same dynamic is in place, just on a

smaller scale. An employer’s behavior is much more powerful
than their words. You can tell someone to keep his workspace
neat and clean until you’re blue in the face, but if your office
looks like a tornado just blew through it and then came back
for seconds, it’s going to be hard for that employee to take you
seriously. On a more meaningful level, if you aren’t leading with
integrity, if you aren’t living the values you want your business to
express, you can’t blame your people for not doing it either.
Lead by example. Walk the walk. Demonstrate the qualities you

want your people to display and they’ll pick up on them. You’ll
be amazed at what a standard you can set for your entire business
just by keeping to that standard yourself.
Rule of Leadership #7: Employees Are People Too!
A little later in this book, I’m going to talk about how to develop
your customer niche in such a way that you identify your most
likely buyers and, just as importantly, understand who they are
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and what they want from you. In other words, you don’t just view
those who patronize your business as a bunch of dollar signs; you
view them as people with the same kinds of concerns, aspirations
and needs as you.
Well, I’m a big believer in viewing those who work for us as

people too. After all, they don’t exist in a vacuum, miraculously
appearing at work and just as mysteriously disappearing from
the earth at closing time. No, they have personal lives outside
the doors of our offices, and it’s important to know a little about
those lives.
Some of my favorite moments as a boss have been based on

personal moments I’ve shared with my employees. If they have
families, I’m interested in what their kids are up to. If they’ve
got a significant other, I like to know a little about whom they’re
involved with. I like to understand what kind of people they are
and what they have to deal with outside of working hours.
I even help out when I can. For example, one person who was
very important to my operation wanted to put his daughter in a
certain preschool, but the fee was out of his reach. I offered to
take care of it for him. Another person had a wife with a chronic
condition that the physical therapist in town couldn’t address. I
found a specialist who could and told him I’d cover the expense.
Does this make me the nicest, most altruistic guy in the world?
Well, I’d love to say that’s the case, but in both situations I just
mentioned, the employee involved was very stressed out. When
someone is feeling that kind of tension, they can’t do their best
work. I knew that if I helped them solve those difficulties, those
employees were not only going to return to their former levels
of performance, but they were probably going to surpass them.
That’s a win for all of us.
Again, as I’ve stressed throughout this chapter, when you

approach leadership from a positive standpoint rather than a
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IDEAL LEADERSHIP
negative one, you create loyalty and you motivate effort. When
you reward your people for reaching goals, you can really inspire
them to a new level of accomplishment.
Last year I did something I called a “100-Day Sprint,” which was

a concentrated effort to reach some short-term goals. I told the
guy running it for me that if we all reached our targets in that
one hundred days, I would send him and his family on a vacation
anywhere he wanted within the continental United States. Well,
we hit the bullseye, so off they went to San Diego and Anaheim
for a great couple of weeks. It was much better than offering him
a bonus or raise because I made it about what he and his family
wanted, not some arbitrary thing I decided for them.
The rules above reflect my overall philosophy of leadership, and

that philosophy revolves around interacting with your people
in a positive, pro-active, and encouraging way. I don’t believe
in bullying employees. It creates unnecessary tension, dilutes
teamwork, and makes everyone miserable. You also end up
driving out your best employees, leaving you with a bunch of
“yes-men” who aren’t about growing themselves or your company
but are only in the business of surviving the next dressing-down.
Ignoring your employees and treating them as machines instead

of human beings is just as bad. When neglect is your modus
operandi, your people end up feeling as if their efforts aren’t
noticed, let alone appreciated, and their morale slowly melts
away.
It doesn’t have to be like that. You can achieve far greater results
by working with your people rather than against them. Yes, there
are always challenges in these relationships, but in most cases,
they can be resolved with a positive outcome for all concerned.
Leading people is a serious responsibility. I challenge you to

view that responsibility as a higher calling. In the words of John
Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, “If your
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actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and

become more, you are a leader.”
That’s something I keep in mind every workday of my life.
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A CATEGORY OF ONE
CHAPTER 6
A CATEGORY OF ONE
One night, you want to relax and unwind, so you decide to watch
a TV show. But what show? You’ve got hundreds of channels
on your cable or satellite TV to choose from, and that’s just
for starters. You might also have Netflix or Amazon Video at
your disposal, and those services have a huge library of original
programming, movies, and vintage TV shows. Then there are all
the other online content sites, like Hulu and YouTube. Depending
on your set-up, you could have literally thousands of options for
entertainment.
Each one of these channels is fighting like crazy for viewers’

eyeballs. Each one of them must somehow stand out from the
others and deliver shows that are unique to their own brand as
well as appealing to enough people to get them to watch, or they’ll
go out of business. And if one of them does disappear from the
TV landscape, most viewers will barely know the difference.
After all, there are a whole lot of other things to watch.
Here’s the hard truth: An entrepreneurial business is a lot

like one of those channels. Your customers or patients have a
multitude of options of where to buy and who to go to, thanks
in large part to the Internet. Now, more than ever, you’ve got to
create a compelling reason to make a potential buyer choose your
business over the competition.
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That’s why you can’t get away with just “business as usual.” You
can’t just provide the same product or service in the same way as
everyone else. It’s too crowded a marketplace today. It’s important
to be good at what you do, of course, and you’ll make some sales
as a result, but if you don’t take the time to create a unique and
memorable reason for people to seek you out, you’re going to
find you’re swimming upstream against a powerful current. This
brings us to my next rule…
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #9: STAND OUT FROM THE

CROWD, OR YOU’LL GET LOST IN IT.
In the previous chapter, we talked about leadership from a

personal standpoint. This chapter (and the next few after this
one) will focus on how to make your company a leader in its
sector. Making your business a Category of One not only creates
that leader position, but, when done correctly, puts customer
motivation into your business model right from the get-go.
So let’s talk about how to get that done.
Big Innovation, Big Success
Disruption is a popular word in the business community these

days. Uber has completely upended the taxicab model. Likewise,
Airbnb is a completely different take on the hotel and motel
business. These twenty-first-century upstart start-ups took on
industries that had barely changed how they did business for
decades—and completely overhauled them. That kind of creative,
out-of-the-box thinking resulted in massive success stories, not
only for those companies but a lot of others like them.
It’s a little soon for another rule, but to me, this one is huge and
represents a fact every entrepreneur needs to keep in mind:
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A CATEGORY OF ONE
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #10: IT DOESN’T COST

ANYTHING TO THINK!
Now, I know that seems obvious, but too many people barrel
ahead with a business idea without taking time to think through
and develop the kind of unique creative strategy that will enable
them to shine more brightly than other similar companies.
Pausing to put together that strategy could be the most important
investment you’ll make, because your Return on Investment
(ROI) for coming up with a memorable business approach can be
limitless. When you become a Category of One, you essentially
are stepping away from the common categories your competitors
would fall into and creating your own new category. You are
innovating and creating a first-mover advantage that allows you
to be viewed differently than everyone else by the marketplace.
You set the pace. Others may copy you, but consumers will
know you’re the real deal. The value of that kind of leadership is
priceless.
To me, putting yourself in a Category of One is essential to

running an IDEAL Business. I found that out for myself with
my very first full-time job when I was working for a small state
college with not much in the way of money or resources. Those
limitations ended up not mattering. What mattered was that I had
to come up with the right plan to grow success—and then put it
into action.
When I was twenty-three, I became the youngest college baseball

coach in the nation, an unofficial title I held for a couple years.
The program I was taking over was, in a word, awful. Yet, five
years later, we took that school’s team to the top tournament in
our division, the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate
Athletes) World Series. The other teams that made it that far
were considerably more well-funded than we were. They each
had about twelve scholarship players—we had less than two. But,
there we were at the World Series as one of the best teams in the
division.
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How did we go so far with so little? We made ourselves a

Category of One.
A New Marketing Mandate
As I said, when the school named me coach, I didn’t inherit much

of a program. To turn things around, I needed to recruit some
awesome high school talent. To put it in business terms, those
star players were the “customers” I had to convince to “buy”
from me. At the time, my school was far from being a Category
of One. It was more like a Category of None. On paper there
wasn’t one good reason a top athlete would seriously consider us.
The other schools had much bigger budgets than I did. We didn’t
even have our own field; we used a city-owned park. Heck, I
wasn’t breaking even on this deal. In my first year as a college
coach I was paid a grand total of three thousand dollars. I had to
piecemeal other income together by doing all sorts of odd jobs. I
announced volleyball games, I gave private lessons, and I served
as the strength and conditioning coach for the school athletes.
The question I had to answer was how could I bring a high caliber
of talent to my team? What would make them want to come to
us? Clearly, I had to do something with the program that other
schools weren’t doing. The good news was that wouldn’t be too
difficult. Most baseball coaches in our division were doing pretty
much the same thing, so if I did anything markedly different,
we’d stand out like a sore thumb. The bad news was there was no
money to invest in the kind of transformation we needed.
But, as I said, thinking doesn’t cost a thing. I realized, neither did

changing up how we marketed ourselves to our prospects. I could
reinvent our brand, what our program was known for, and doing
so wouldn’t cost a penny.
My inner marketer awakened within me for the first time. Star

athletes were our “customers,” I had to figure out what would
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A CATEGORY OF ONE
make them “buy” from us, so I asked myself, “What does a kid
want out of baseball at the college level?” There was an obvious
answer: Those kids want to win games, and they want to look
good while doing it so they have a shot at playing professionally.
Well, you couldn’t help but look good if you were hitting .400
and maybe knocking out fifteen home runs in a season—maybe
even going on to become an All-American. That’s how you could
impress scouts and maybe go on to a real career in the game.
Making that happen was right in my wheelhouse because I

knew what kind of training it would take to make my kids
stronger hitters. Because of my double duty as the strength and
conditioning coach, I knew this was an area where baseball
lagged at the time. If I brought into our program the advantages
I knew strength training would deliver, our hitters could end up
dominating the division. I had nothing to lose, so I decided that
would be our mandate—and we would aggressively pursue it.
The IDEAL Prospect
In the next chapter, we’re going to talk in detail about the concept
of discovering who your most likely customers or patients are and
then building your IDEAL Business around that kind of person’s
wants and needs. In our case, we were after kids who wanted to
do some big league hitting, so emphasizing power hitting in our
program was exactly the right way to recruit the kinds of kids
who were most likely to join our team.
Here’s how we came to that conclusion: Our state-funded school

was located in an economically depressed area that had a lot of
first-generation college students. We weren’t going to get kids
from affluent areas or rich parents; these were guys from blue-
collar or lower-middle-class backgrounds. Most of them kind of
had chips on their shoulders because they had been overlooked
by bigger, more well-known schools. They wanted a chance to
show their stuff in the most powerful way possible.
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I knew that these players would be just the kinds of guys who
would be attracted to our message of strength conditioning as a
primary tool of player development. They wouldn’t get all that
excited about the nuances of what’s called “small ball,” which
involved scoring runs through deliberate and methodical tactics
like bunting and hit-and-run. No, they wanted to score with one
swing of the bat—by smashing home runs and clearing the bases
in the process.
We encouraged that kind of aggressive mentality. And we

worked to create the kind of environment where we could play
to these kids’ strengths so they’d be excited about playing for us,
making them easier to recruit. It turned out to be the philosophy
I still use for my businesses today: Play to your strengths, create
a marketing plan that’s attractive to people you want to recruit,
and go get it in front of them.
The Marketing Edge
Because our player development program was now so different

from the rest, I was no longer directly competing with other
schools I couldn’t outspend. Now I just had to run a baseball camp
and feature this new mandate in the camp’s brochure with copy
that said something like, “Hey, come learn the hitting system that
helped this player go from getting two hits as a high school senior
to nineteen hits as a junior in college.” I sent out brochures to all
the potential prospects I had my eye on. That meant I didn’t have
to spend money on recruiting. I would instead get these kids to
come to me and actually pay for the privilege by participating in
my baseball camp.
When it came to recruiting, we handled that differently than other

schools too; I wanted us to focus on our strengths. While other
college’s sports programs were using the same type of generic
recruiting letter, mine was more like a sales letter. I targeted
those kids with whom I actually had a shot. No way was I going
to have a chance with, say, a 6’3” pitcher that threw ninety-two
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A CATEGORY OF ONE
mph, not with one-sixth the scholarship money as everyone else.

No, I would go after a 5’10” pitcher who hadn’t gotten any other
offers, but was determined to show the other schools they had
been wrong about him. I wanted the player who was hungry and
whose drive we could use to enhance his talents and skills with
our strength improvement program. That was the kind of player I
knew we could help achieve dramatic improvement as an athlete.
So we wouldn’t have the league’s greatest pitcher. It didn’t matter.

The other teams only had one real ace on their squads, so yeah,
they would probably dominate us in that one game. But I knew if
we made it into a conference tournament, there were four or five
games they would have to win over us to advance. We could win
enough of those games with our hitting to keep moving up. We
might win those games 12-7 instead of 3-1, but a “W” is a “W,”
no matter what the score ends up being.
That was our plan, and it worked better than we could have
imagined. It turned out to be this wonderful merging of forces
where we found the right guys who bought into our mandate and
ended up delivering big time. They almost always got to swing
big without ever having to worry about executing the perfect
bunt. As a matter of fact, in the whole season during the year we
ended up going to that NAIA World Series, our team only bunted
twice—and one of those times was because the player misread
a signal.
Our record that year was forty-eight wins and sixteen losses.
Lessons Learned
So, yes, I talked a lot of baseball in this chapter, but I did so

because everything I relayed applies to business and how to put
yours in a Category of One. This was a real-world scenario where
I didn’t have money or resources, but it didn’t matter. We had the
right plan, and that’s what lead to our success.
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I didn’t know it at the time, but I approached my time as a baseball

coach the same as an entrepreneur should approach a business.
That’s because I needed to market the school’s program—just
as business owners must market what they’re offering—in order
to succeed. When you spend seven years as a college baseball
coach, your livelihood is based on being able to recruit players
that will help you win. That’s a tall order when you have to ask
parents to send their son to your program and all you have to
offer is $500 in scholarship money. You’re basically asking them
to invest tens of thousands of dollars in their child’s next four
years so he can play in your program, and that’s a tough sell. We
made it work as well as we did because we offered something
the other folks couldn’t. We made it work because we provided a
huge benefit to those kids, a strength conditioning regimen and a
chance to show their stuff, two big things that they weren’t going
to get anywhere else.
Whatever business you’re in (or want to get into), you must find
a way to deliver advantages that stand out to your prospects and
that make you a true Category of One. Making this happen isn’t
about throwing around a lot of money on advertising. The most
important element is creating a business and a marketing strategy
with a singular purpose, one that pulls in the potential customer
and makes them say, “Wow, these guys can really deliver on this!
I’ve got to try it out.”
Now, you’re probably wondering how you can do all that for your
business. Well, in the next couple of chapters, you’re going to
find out. In the next chapter, I’ll show you how to zero in on your
potential customers or patients and meet their wants and needs.
In Chapter 8, I’ll show you how to then transform your Category-
of-One decisions into a brand message that’s irresistible to your
audience.
And I’m going to do that because I’m still all about helping people
hit home runs!
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YOUR IDEAL NICHE
CHAPTER 7
YOUR IDEAL NICHE
As a baseball coach, I created a program specifically designed to

grab the attention of the kids I knew I wanted to recruit, kids who
didn’t want to waste time on the nuances of the sport, but instead
wanted to slam the ball as hard as they could. That way they
had the best shot at becoming high-visibility players. By meeting
their desires, I was able to bring some strong talent onto our team
and build a foundation for success.
This chapter is about helping you do the same for your business.
When you’re determining how to put your business in a Category
of One, it’s important to prioritize the wants and needs of your
desired customers or patients over and above your own personal
wish list. If you’re not working toward their interests—if you’re
only interested in doing what you want to do with your company—
then people are going to be much less inclined to seek you out.
Your goal, is to figure out who you want to sell to (if applicable)
and what’s going to draw them to your business. The typical
conversations about customers, however, can get very confusing.
Entrepreneurs throw around words like “IDEAL Client,” “Target
Market” and “Niche” and use them interchangeably as if they
mean the same thing. It’s an easy mistake to make, and I’ve been
guilty of it myself. But when you precisely define those terms and
use them the way they were meant to be used, you put yourself on
a course to accurately pinpoint who your best potential customers
or patients are—and how to appeal to them.
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So, before we go much further, let’s look at the definition of

those buzz words. I want you to understand what each one really
means and what impact they can make on your business. As I
do that, you’ll also see how these distinct facets create a three-
stage formula for successfully transforming your business into a
customer magnet.
Your IDEAL Client
The first stage of that formula begins with nailing down who
your IDEAL Client is.
Your IDEAL Clients are the customers or patients who are real
superstars to your business, the people who are really into what
you do and how you do it. They’re incredibly enthusiastic about
you and appreciative of the products and services you offer.
They’re not shy about singing your praises to others they know.
They see you as more than a business. To them, you are a positive
force in their lives because of what you provide for them.
Although IDEAL Clients probably only comprise, at most, about

10 percent of your client base at any given time, as frequent
“buyers”, they contribute a much bigger percentage than that to
your bottom line. They’re the kind of people you can’t help but
wish you had a lot more of. They represent those who are going
to have the most passion for buying from you, which is why your
first step in this process should be getting to know who they are.
Now, when I say you want to get to know who they are, I’m
not talking about their demographics, such as where they live
or how much money they make. That’s going to come later. For
the moment, this is about discovering their intangibles, such
as what kinds of personalities and traits they might have in
common. From there you can begin to construct your “typical”
IDEAL Client, the kind of person to whom you should reach out
with your marketing because you’ll have an excellent chance of
making a connection with them.
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YOUR IDEAL NICHE
Of course, it may be hard for you to determine these intangibles

if you’re not providing a personal service where you encounter
clients or patients one on one. In that case, you may want to
survey customers with some general questions to find out if they
share common interests, hobbies, charitable endeavors, goals, or
other attributes related to your specific business.
Because IDEAL Clients are a driving (and profitable) force

behind your business, it just makes sense to find out as much as
you can about them—so you can bring in a lot more like them.
Also, if you zoom in on what they like best about you—and what
other kinds of services or products they might also enjoy, you can
uncover a lot of valuable insight into your business in the process.
The results of studying these people often gives you a valuable
map for moving your business forward.
Your Target Market
Once you’ve identified your typical IDEAL Client, your next

step is to define your Target Market.
Your Target Market is based on a set of demographics that

represent the most attractive pool of prospects for your business.
These are the people to whom you want to market. For example,
you might be after Dads aged twenty-eight to forty who live in a
three-mile radius and have a household income of $100,000 or
more. Or retirees with lots of disposable income who regularly
purchase luxury products. You can put together countless
demographic combinations depending on what you’re providing
and who’s most likely to buy it. Big data can provide you with an
overwhelming amount of information these days. But, as a small
businessperson, your best bet is to keep your Target Market as
simple as possible.
Your IDEAL Client type will give you the best clues as to how
to narrow down the data to create a manageable Target Market—
just be sure to focus on what demographics they share. You’ll be
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able to quickly see what categories jump out at you. For example,
they may live in similar neighborhoods, fall in the same age
group, have similar incomes, and be mostly of one gender.
Or not! You may find that the only demographic data your IDEAL
Clients have in common is generational—they’re all Millennials,
Gen X-ers, Baby Boomers, or some combination of those broad
generational categories. Or it might come down to a much more
specific type like my wife’s first business, Fit Yummy Mummy,
which targets busy young moms who want to get in shape after
giving birth.
Whatever the case, you want to get specific with your Target
Market because unless you’re Coca-Cola or McDonalds, it’s
a waste of money to try and sell yourself to the entire world.
(By the way, even those corporate behemoths create different
messaging for different Target Markets.) There are always going
to be people who will never come to you simply because they
have no interest in what you’re providing. You don’t try to sell
cars to people who don’t drive, nor do you try to sell steaks to
vegetarians—so why throw away money on the attempt? The
best way to market the most affordably and effectively is by going
after the Target Market that has the most interest in what you do.
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #11: AIM FOR A SPECIFIC

TARGET, AND YOU EMPOWER YOUR MARKETING
TO HIT THE BULLSEYE.
Once you’ve identified your specific Target Market, the next step
is to think about what that Target Market wants. Let’s go beyond
even that and try to figure out what their greatest want might be
in terms of what your business does. The answer is where your
sweet spot lies. If you can dial in their big want and make it an
integral part of how you do business, you’ll become a Category
of One.
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YOUR IDEAL NICHE
That’s the third part of the formula for making your business a
customer magnet, and it’s what we’re going to tackle next.
Your IDEAL Niche
Traditionally, a niche is a focused group comprising the people

your business is designed to serve—a combination of who you’ve
determined is your IDEAL Client and your Target Market. I like
to take the concept of a niche a step further and focus on finding
your IDEAL Niche. What I mean by an IDEAL Niche is how you
best serve that combination of IDEAL Client and Target Market.
An IDEAL Business always aims to find that IDEAL Niche.
Let’s apply the IDEAL Niche to a restaurant business, a high-end

eatery whose IDEAL Client eats out once a week because (a)
they don’t feel like cooking for themselves every single night,
and (b) they like to enjoy a quality restaurant experience.
So what do we know about these kinds of potential diners? We

know that experience is very important to them, so they obviously
want the restaurant to offer a great atmosphere and great food.
They also want the staff to take care of them, not ignore them—
these are customers who work hard and want to be rewarded
with a higher level of service. Let’s add one more qualifier. Let’s
say we determined they like the restaurant to be close to their
neighborhood so they don’t have to drive a long way to get there.
Those are the IDEAL Clients’ characteristics. Now what about

the Target Market?
Since these IDEAL customers like to eat locally, the Target

Market is going to be households within maybe a five-to-ten-
mile radius of the restaurant. We should probably narrow down
the households to those who earn in excess of $100,000 a year.
Because most people under a certain age don’t earn that kind
of money, we’re going to go a step further and say this Target
Market is made up of people ages thirty-five and up.
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Our niche, then, is people who dine out regularly, who are
relatively affluent, middle-aged and older, and live nearby. Those
are our most likely customers and our potential IDEAL Clients,
the kind of people we want to attract because they’ll come in a
few times a month and spend a lot when they do.
But what’s our IDEAL Niche? How do we up the ante and make
sure our restaurant is unique in a way that’s going to be irresistible
to those kinds of people?
There are many ways to make this happen. We can serve the kind
of food that’s especially appealing to this niche as well as make
sure to design the kind of atmosphere they enjoy. We can also
make sure the staff is friendly, welcoming, and good at bonding
with diners so they’ll look forward to returning and seeing them
again. In all these areas, we need to make sure we surpass what
similar restaurants in the area are offering.
Then, for good measure, we can look for certain special “extras”
that will seal the deal with our niche. It could be a silly gimmick
like singing waiters or something more substantial, like offering
an outstanding wine list. Or it could mean hiring an amazing chef
whose food is irresistible. It all depends on what really resonates
with the restaurant’s typical IDEAL Client and Target Market.
Most importantly, it all depends on what our niche’s greatest
want is.
A little earlier, I mentioned my wife’s business. It became

successful because she targeted young moms and tapped into
what their greatest want was, which was getting their pre-baby
bodies back. But the big intangible that they were really after was
feeling like the best versions of themselves again without a huge
time commitment. These are women who’ve given up a little on
what they look like simply because they’ve been too busy taking
care of their kids (and maybe working a job at the same time).
They want to feel and look like their pre-baby selves even though
they’re now much too busy to commit much time to that kind of
self-improvement.
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YOUR IDEAL NICHE
My wife’s answer? She created a program that offers powerful

results, and the moms only need to dedicate fifteen minutes of
their day to see those results. That feels manageable to these
moms, which is one of the real keys to the program’s success.
They stick with the program because they get their big want: a
fit body in a relatively small amount of time. Making sure that
your customers or patients get their big want is what puts your
business into that Category of One.
When you define your IDEAL Client, your Target Market, and
finally, your IDEAL Niche, you put yourself through a three-part
process that sets you up to successfully reinvent yourself as a
Category of One. Pause here for a moment and think about your
business:
1. What are the qualities that your favorite clients or patients

possess?
2. What Target Market do most of them fall into?
3. What is your Niche is when it comes to what you help them
achieve and how you actually accomplish it?
This is your formula for finding and connecting with the prospects
you want to serve. Now, follow through on that reinvention! Go
out there and let your Target Market know about your business
through aggressive marketing and branding that puts your
message front and center. That’s what our next chapter is all
about: crafting the right brand message that will tap directly into
your Category of One status. So read on, and I’ll help you pull in
all the IDEAL Clients you can handle.
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YOUR IDEAL BRAND
CHAPTER 8
YOUR IDEAL BRAND
Once you’ve defined your IDEAL Niche, that group of consumers

you want to attract to your business, it’s time to let that IDEAL
Niche know about you using your brand and the message it
conveys. Now, I’m not going to tell you how to create the perfect
logo or what font you should use. Sure, that stuff matters, but
we’re talking about the most important step in your marketing
process. Before you get into any of that marketing minutia, you
want to figure out how to attract the people you want as clients,
customers or patients. This is done by promoting the unique
advantages you’ve established in your Category of One.
As you can see, you will be building on the work you’ve already
done as outlined in this book thus far. If you’ve made yourself
a Category of One in ways that matter to consumers, they will
respond to marketing messages that specifically zero in on those
services, products, or experiences that meet their needs. In the
process of delivering a unique and authentic message, you’re also
going to attract many more of the kinds of customers or patients
who fit your IDEAL Client category.
In many ways, marketing is about controlling how your business

is perceived by the public. Your branding should be telling
potential (and existing) customers and patients, “Look, this is
who we are, and this is how we’re different.” It shouldn’t be about
constantly trumpeting discounts or copying the advertising of the
guy down the street. Which brings us to the next rule:
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IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #12: MAKE YOUR

MARKETING AS SINGULAR AS YOUR BUSINESS.
Here’s why I think this rule is so important: When you’ve gone

to the trouble to make your business different in an authentic
and meaningful way, it just doesn’t make sense to not extend that
same effort to your branding. It would be like if Uber made all
their drivers paint their cars to look like yellow cabs. The whole
company’s point is to not be an old-school taxi service. You want
to show everyone how you’re different. That’s what’s going to
bring them to your door.
That’s why you want to avoid one-size-fits-all marketing. During

my days in the fitness industry, I would see the exact same ad
copy used by different trainers and boot camps. By using the
exact same message, they weren’t giving prospective clients or
patients any reason to choose one or the other. They all seemed
interchangeable—and that’s the exact opposite of what you want
for your branding.
You have no way of building any type of long-term following

or loyalty if you present yourself the same as everybody else.
If somebody else comes along and they simply undercut your
price by a few bucks, you’ve given people no reason to work with
you. When you present yourself in a generic way, people don’t
mind buying from you—but they also don’t mind buying from
someone else!
Uncovering Your Branding Basics
Here are three main points your branding and marketing should
tackle head on:
• Attracting your IDEAL Niche

• Expressing your unique advantages
• Letting the market know what you and your business stand for
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YOUR IDEAL BRAND
Let’s take those one at a time.
To begin with, your brand must be customized so that it attracts

that IDEAL Niche we discussed in the last chapter. That’s first
and foremost. It doesn’t matter if you love what your company
does and how it does it. If your branding doesn’t attract the clients
or patients you want and who are most likely to buy from you,
then you’ve got to retool it. If you can’t attract the right prospects
for your business, you’re in trouble before you even start.
Secondly, your branding needs to express your unique advantages.

What do you have to offer that your competition doesn’t? That’s
what’s going to set you apart as a Category of One, so naturally
your marketing needs to sell that essential aspect of your business.
Your market message could be based on your delivery system,
on your track record, on your specific products or services, or a
combination of all those, and your brand should be designed to
attract the kind of people that would gravitate to those advantages.
Finally, your brand needs to let the market know what you and
your business stand for. You don't want to be weak with your
message or try to be all things to all people. Instead, you want
people to know what they can expect when they come to do
business with you, and whom you’re designed to serve (and just
as importantly, whom you aren’t designed to serve). That second
part is just as important as the first part. If you can’t be clear
about to whom your business is catering, you're not specialized
enough. I’ll talk more about specialization a little later in this
chapter and why it’s essential for an entrepreneur.
For now, let’s go through a couple of important exercises that will

help you zero in on these points.
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The first exercise is short and simple. Start by answering the

following three questions:
• What are you known for?

• What makes you memorable? Unique?
• What do you get compliments on?
Answering these questions helps you further articulate your

platform and gets you clear about who you are and what you’re
doing. Now that I’ve got you thinking about those points, let’s
further refine your brand into a single thought. Simply fill in the
blanks of these statements:
I help .
What do I help them do? .
For example, if I were to complete this exercise, I would end

up with this basic business statement: I help entrepreneurs build
their IDEAL Business.
This is the statement I use when someone asks me what I do. I

could just say, “Oh, well, I’m a business consultant,” and the person
making the inquiry might just nod and move on. However, when
I answer, “I help entrepreneurs build their IDEAL Business,” it
inspires a bunch of other questions, such as “What is an IDEAL
Business?” “How do you help entrepreneurs do this?” and so
forth.
This statement also sets me up as a person who creates a definable

benefit for others, and that’s obviously very attractive to someone
who is in the category of client I serve. An entrepreneur would
instantly wonder how I might improve their business with
my system, and that in turn would motivate a conversation, a
conversation that could end up being very valuable to both of us.
The point here is that you need to define yourself beyond just
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YOUR IDEAL BRAND
your job title or occupation. A job title is boring, it’s bland, it’s
generic, and these are all things you want to avoid in representing
yourself to others. The “I help” type of statement creates an
instant marketing message that immediately hooks those who
might need your services.
Your Perfect Five-Point Formula for Marketing
The second exercise I’d like you to do will enable you to expand on
that basic branding statement you just completed. By answering
the following five questions, you will have a perfect “Five-Point
Formula” that will provide the complete foundation for all of
your marketing messaging moving forward.
1. Whom do you want to help?

2. What is their pain? What do they want?
3. How do you deliver the solution?
4. What are the results of the solution you provide?
5. Why should they choose you?
If you can answer all five of the above questions in an effective

manner, you will have the messaging you need for all your
marketing: everything from brochures to direct mail campaigns
to Internet banner ads. It’s very important to be able to answer all
five. When you can’t, you’re allowing for some very significant
holes in your marketing process.
Here’s an example: Let’s say your company creates websites for

businesses. And you’re very clear about the answer to Question
1, whom you want to help (small local businesses), as well as
Question 3, how you provide the solution (you think they need
sophisticated and attractive website designs). But you went ahead
and skipped right over Question 2, what your IDEAL Niche really
wants. In this case, let’s say that niche really wants websites that
effectively convert prospects to customers or patients.
As you can see, what you want is totally different from what your
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customers or patients want. That kills your marketing right out

of the gate.
Here’s why: You go on and heavily promote your ability to

provide elegant and high-level website design, saying the benefit
is the kind of design that makes a small business look more high-
level. But the local businesses you’re trying to reach completely
misread your message. To them, high-level design means (a)
you’re probably too expensive, and (b) you’re not properly focused
on the sales results they need. The result is that your marketing
actually causes businesses to turn away from you.
Many entrepreneurs make the crucial mistake of emphasizing

what they think is important for their clients or patients instead
of what the clients or patients think is important. They want a
solution to alleviate their pain points; they don’t care as much
about the mechanism that gets them there. In our example, you
may be right about those local businesses needing a more upscale
look, but if they don’t agree, it doesn’t matter. So you need to
reframe your solution to their problem in a way that reflects their
concerns.
Similarly, if you don’t address Question 4, the results of your

solution, you may be ignoring another powerful marketing point.
In the last chapter I told you about my wife’s successful business
helping busy moms get back into shape. One of her typical
prospects might claim that all she wants to do is lose fifteen
pounds, but as I noted, the real results she’s after might be to feel
better about herself, regain the confidence she had before she had
the baby, and to have a better relationship with her spouse.
If that’s the case, then you can emphasize those “ultimate

benefits” in your marketing and trigger a stronger response from
your IDEAL Niche. You can use testimonials that validate those
benefits and provide social proof. In contrast, if you just focus on
losing weight, some prospects won’t see those ultimate benefits.
They’ll only think about having to exercise… and they’ll turn
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away from your services. It’s a lot easier to turn on Netflix than
to do even a short workout, but if you show your niche how that
workout will significantly improve their lives, that’s a strong
motivator to avoid a binge-watch and start exercising.
Question 5, of course, goes back to our Category of One objective:

Why should your IDEAL Niche choose you? What motivates
them to seek you out and stay with you? All too often a business
defaults to price or location as its reason for being. “We’re cheap
and we’re close.” Those are the two answers you want to avoid for
Question 5 because anyone can beat you at that game, and it says
nothing about why you’re really special.
For your answer to Question 5, it’s much better to focus on

how you’re a specialist. If you look at the field of medicine, we
all know that a specialist gets paid a lot more than a general
practitioner. That rule applies to other industries as well. That’s
because people will pay more for solutions that are specific to
them. They feel their individual needs are being addressed by
a person who has experience with them, and that increases the
value of your product or service in their minds. The way that I
think about this and explain it is that I would much rather be the
king of a very small island than somebody who's anonymous in
a land of millions.
Many entrepreneurs fear being too specific about what they do.
They should instead worry about being too broad with their
intended niche. I understand this can be a hard pill to swallow
as an entrepreneur. Naturally, you want to help everyone as best
as you can (and of course, make as many sales as possible in
the process). But dominating a small vertical market gives you
the credibility and confidence to grow. Besides, once you own
a small slice of a market, you can always expand by degrees
and scoop up more and more slices for yourself because you’ve
already proven yourself.
I want to emphasize how important it is for you to come up
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with the best possible answers to those five questions on page

111 because they are the foundation of everything you do from
a marketing standpoint. If you dig deep for the right answers,
you’re bound to strike oil.
Here’s just one way your five-point formula answers will serve
you: We all want our business to generate referrals. We all want
the kind of word-of-mouth that brings in new customers, patients
and clients on a regular basis. But if we can’t articulate what
makes our businesses stand out, if we can't quickly and simply
relate what we do and how we’re different, how can we expect
others to do it? How is our team, our customers, our patients,
our network of friends and family supposed to sell us effectively
if we can’t do it? This is such an important idea that…well, it
deserves its own rule.
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #13:

IF YOU CAN’T EXPLAIN WHY YOUR BUSINESS
IS SPECIAL, NO ONE WILL KNOW IT IS!
You don’t want people to just say, “Yeah, these guys are good,” or
give you some other bland, unmemorable endorsement and leave
it at that. You want to create champions for your business, people
who will really help move the ball forward for you. Because
that’s how real success happens.
Answering these five questions gives you the talking points

you need to differentiate yourself and get people excited about
you. That’s when they end up talking about how great you are
at lunch, at work, at a party, wherever and whenever—because
you’ve enabled them to talk about you in way that’s meaningful
and attractive to your IDEAL Niche.
Make Your Brand Magnetic
Speaking of attractive, let’s talk about making your brand

magnetic. We’ve just examined how to lay the groundwork for
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your IDEAL Brand. Of course, it’s a critically important step.

But it’s still only groundwork. You still have one more important
step to take, and that’s making your brand magnetic. You do that
by treating it as an active, living thing that you and your team
attend to on a daily basis so that it consistently attracts the kind
of people you want to draw to your business.
Remember the phrase “active, living thing” because thinking of

your brand in that way should be a priority. You can’t just say,
“Well, we’ve thought out our brand, now let’s move on.” Instead,
you must create the kind of strong and irresistible identity that
creates buzz and solidifies your brand in the public’s mind.
Otherwise, you’re going to end up like the tree that falls in the
forest when nobody’s around. Yeah, it’s going to make a big
sound, but nobody’s going to hear it.
The fact is that your brand message is no good if it’s only a

message. If you don’t make that brand a reality in the way you run
your business, that message not only doesn’t help you, it can hurt
you—because you’re not living up to what your brand promises.
That’s why you want to establish your brand standards before

you start marketing your brand. Yes, you can say you want to be
known for certain things, but is the actual experience that clients
or patients have with you reflective of those things? Is what you
do consistent with what you’re saying? If you’re promising certain
results with your product or service, are people actually enjoying
those results? If you want to say your service is the best in your
industry, have you taken the steps to make sure that’s the truth?
This is the last link of a chain we started when we talked about

your business being an extension of who you are and what you
want out of life. Ideally, as an entrepreneur, your values must be
reflected in your company. Otherwise, your business or business
model is not a great fit for you. Now it’s time to take that idea a
step further and make sure you deliver the values you’ve defined
for your brand in a consistent and congruent manner to your
customers and patients.
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Here’s an exercise that will help with that effort. Ask yourself
these questions:
What do you want to be known for?
You’ll find the answers to this question in your IDEAL Brand

brainstorming you did last chapter. Review your business
operation and see how well you’re living up to the perception you
want to convey.
Why did your best clients, patients, or customers choose you?
Don’t ignore what your superstar clients or patients already

love about you. Keep on doing the things that drive the most
enthusiasm from them.
What is the #1 thing you want to be known for to your IDEAL

Niche?
Hopefully, you already know this from the Five-Point Formula

for Marketing questions. Just remember, your #1 thing must
be something that both you and your customers or patients are
pumped about and that you can position front-and-center in your
business.
What do you have to change to be known for your #1 thing?
The changes you make to reflect that #1 thing will likely entail
a combination of marketing and operational adjustments. As an
entrepreneur, you have the power to make those adjustments—
and they need to be made across the board.
Your brand message isn’t just represented by a slogan or brochure.

It also must be an integral part of the services you provide, the
products you sell, and the overall experience you’re creating
through the people who represent your business in one way
or another. For example, a popular brand message for a small
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YOUR IDEAL BRAND
business these days, in this time of huge, detached corporate

transactions, is that you’re big on one-on-one relationships and
delivering great customer service.
If that’s your brand message, you need to make sure that when
somebody walks in your front door, you greet them with a smile
and engage in a conversation that creates a connection. Even
better, make your customers or patients feel like family. If the
phone rings, make sure it gets answered by the second ring and,
if for some reason nobody can get to the phone, you have a policy
of calling everyone back within a certain (short) time frame.
These things may seem trivial, but they’re not to the people you
serve. You can't say you’ve got a relationship-oriented business
but act like you’re mainly transactional. It’s easy to throw out
buzzwords like “dependable,” “friendly,” and “reliable.” But
when a customer leaves a message and nobody gets back to them
in three days, those words ring hollow to the people who matter
the most: the ones who buy from you.
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #14: IF YOU CAN’T LIVE UP

TO YOUR BRAND, YOU DON’T REALLY HAVE ONE.
Here’s the bottom line: Whatever you say about your business,
you must be able and willing to bring that talk to life. If you
don’t, the discrepancies will catch up with you. You can’t create
expectations and then not meet them, because there's nothing
that's going to kill a business faster than marketing that misleads
the consumer. That consumer will not give you a second chance
and, more importantly, they may tell everyone they know about
how you disappointed them.
Instead, create a great experience for whoever comes in contact

with any aspect of your business. Believe it or not, your customer
service can be a more important asset than anything you sell.
Zappos, the online shoe retailer, sold the same kind of footwear
as everybody else. But they made a commitment to service that,
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for the time, seemed truly radical and a recipe for bankruptcy.
The result? It made them a billion-dollar sensation that was so
successful Amazon finally bought them out.
That’s the way a magnetic brand operates.
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CHAPTER 9
YOUR IDEAL PLATFORM
So far, in terms of building your IDEAL business, we’ve talked

about a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff: creating your brand,
defining your niche, and fine tuning your basic marketing
message. All of that is like getting a play ready to present to
the public. Everybody’s learning their lines, scenery is getting
built, parts are being cast, and both the crew and the actors are
rehearsing like crazy to make sure everything goes off without
a hitch on opening night. Here’s the problem—all that effort and
preparation is for nothing if the producers haven’t found a way to
get an audience into the theatre to actually watch the play!
In respect to entrepreneurs, that means that even if you’ve created

the most magnificent brand with the most amazing marketing
message in the world, it won’t matter unless you build a platform
to communicate that brand and message to your intended IDEAL
Niche.
That’s why, in this chapter, we’re going to talk about how to

create that platform: a focused marketing system that will enable
you to consistently reach out to your niche in a way that converts
prospects to customers, patients and clients and, in turn, builds
your business on an ongoing basis.
The First Impression Is Not Enough
These days, your platform will almost certainly be a virtual

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one. In the past few decades, the Internet has revolutionized

marketing, enabling anyone to instantly reach millions, even
billions of people at once. Never before in the history of the
world has communication on this level been a possibility for the
average person.
That’s the good news. The bad news is, everybody else is doing
what you’re trying to do, creating the ultimate Tower of Babel.
There’s so much online chatter out there that it’s really, really easy
for your message to get lost in the noise. The answer? Same as
it’s been throughout this book: Once again you must differentiate
and ask yourself, “How do I stand out from the competition with
my communication? How can I present myself in such a way that
people will pay attention to what I’m doing?”
Fortunately, you’ve already done some of the heavy-lifting in this

effort if you’ve been doing the work and answering the questions
in the past few chapters. By putting your Category-of-One brand
positioning to work, you’ll begin to attract a steady stream of
prospects to your platform. But that initial attraction won’t be
enough.
The real trick is to keep them interested in what you’re doing—

and that can be the hardest part. A platform takes time to build
and even longer to really pay off; it’s very much a long-term
investment. Unless you’re selling a miracle once-in-a-lifetime
product or service, people are not going to instantly click on a
“Buy Now” button when they first encounter your marketing
messages.
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #15: WE DON’T GET TO

DECIDE WHEN SOMEBODY IS READY TO BUY.
No matter how great your branding and marketing messages are,

you’re going to be on your prospect’s schedule; they’re not going
to be on yours. You can’t order someone to seek you out at any
given moment. It can take a while to acquire new customers or
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patients. These statistics from the National Sales Association

provide some eye-opening evidence of that fact:
• 2 percent of sales are made on the first contact

• 3 percent of sales are made on the second contact
• 5 percent of sales are made on the third contact
• 10 percent of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80 percent of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
No, we can’t control when someone buys from us; however,

what we can control is how people perceive us. We do that by
constructing the right kind of platform—a platform that contains
the right ingredients that will eventually persuade prospects to
convert to customers or patients.
For more than ten years, that’s just what my platform has done
for me, and it has become the lifeblood of my business. I’ll go
into a little more detail about how it works later (it’s actually
a lot simpler than you might think), but first, let’s tackle some
basics of what your platform must accomplish and how it can
accomplish them.
The Four Pillars of a Platform
To me, there are four “pillars” that support and strengthen an

entrepreneurial platform. Let’s talk about them one at a time.
Pillar #1: Attention
This pillar is really Marketing 101. Whenever we run an ad,

do a public speaking gig, or promote ourselves in any way, the
objective is to get people’s attention. If we can’t make this first
step work for us, if we can’t find a way to initially attract anyone
to our messaging, everything stops in its tracks. Your platform
needs to contain the kind of positioning and value that draws
people to it. You must be able to generate that first burst of
interest to begin developing a relationship.
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Pillar #2: Authority
Next, you have to successfully position yourself as one of the

superstars in your field. There are a variety of ways to do that.
You can do education-based marketing or provide social proof
through testimonials and third-party validations. All of these
tactics contain proof of your knowledge and experience. When
you’re seen as an authority in your field, people want to know
what you have to say. That kind of authority automatically
attracts folks to your platform and gives a big assist in helping
your prospects convert to customers or patients.
Pillar #3: Trust
Establishing authority creates the beginnings of genuine trust in

you and your business. From there, as long as you’re consistent,
a straight-shooter, and you keep delivering value in one form
or another, that trust will only continue build. The result? You
become the one (and hopefully only one) from whom your niche
wants to go to, even if your prices might be a little higher than
your competition. Their trust in you gives you more value in their
eyes.
Pillar #4: Engagement
This final pillar is where a lot of entrepreneurs skip or stop

building, which is dangerous because it’s such a critical
component of a platform. For example, let’s say you start a blog
site. You write three or four posts, but then you stop because you
think they’re not getting enough views. Or you send out a couple
newsletters, decide it’s not really delivering enough results and
quit. It happens all too often. More and more, our society expects
instant gratification. People bail out on a situation when it doesn’t
immediately work.
Starting a platform can seem like a very lonely business. You

feel like the Maytag repairman in the old commercials, the
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guy who never gets a call. When you’re building a platform,

however, you can’t expect too much too soon. It takes time to
build a following. Once you have a following, you have to keep
building by creating enough engagement that your followers stick
around until they’re ready to buy. Showing up and staying visible
requires a commitment.
The Four Pillars of Platform are designed to work together

to create relationships between our respective niches and us.
We’ve got to first be able to get that niche’s attention. We then
must establish the kind of trust and authority that will keep its
attention. Finally, we must engage with the people within our
niche to such an extent that, when they are motivated to take out
their credit cards or schedule an appointment, we’re the ones they
come to—because they believe we’re providing the best solution
for their needs. When we build up their confidence in us, they
come to trust that we can give them the outcomes they want.
That’s why the platform can become such a huge and foundational
aspect of your brand. When your platform integrates your
Category-of-One positioning and its marketing messaging, people
will see you as “owning” a certain sector of your industry. But
that doesn’t happen unless you continually build your platform
with fresh content.
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #16: ROME WASN’T BUILT IN

A DAY—AND NEITHER IS A PLATFORM.
Choosing Your Hub
Your platform begins by building your hub. When people do

a Google search to find out more about you, more often than
not, your hub is where they’re going to look first. In most cases,
that hub is your website so you’ve got to make sure your website
reflects your brand and what it’s all about.
That doesn’t mean you have to run out and spend tens of
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thousands of dollars on that website to make it blast lasers or

shoot off fireworks to get people’s attention. That’ll probably just
scare them into pulling the plug out of their computer. No, you
just need to make sure your home page is congruent with your
overall messaging and provides the right image and content.
Think of what happens when you go to a real-life, in-person

business meeting. (I’ve heard these are rare nowadays, but
apparently they do still occur!) Maybe you’re going to meet
an important client or prospect or are expecting a new patient.
You’re not going to wear a bathrobe and slippers to that meeting
because you’d look unprofessional—or crazy. Instead, you choose
clothes that help you look and feel like your best, most confident
self. Even if your personal branding is more to the casual end,
you choose clothes that reflect your style and put your best self
forward.
The look and feel of your hub should follow suit. It must reinforce
your marketing message in a strong, positive, and memorable
way. If your hub seems haphazard and sloppy (e.g., lots of typos
or copy that’s not focused or thought out), then the visitors to
your site are going to ask themselves some questions, such as
these:
• Do I really want to buy from someone who cares so little

about their presentation?
• How can I trust that what I buy from this person is actually
going to deliver?
If they have to ask those questions, you’ve already sabotaged any

chance of engagement with that person. Right off the bat, they
are wary rather than trusting of you, what you do, and how you
do it. That certainly undercuts your authority as well.
Spreading Out to Social Media
Social media, of course, must also be an integral part of your
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platform strategy. Facebook and the like are so universal these

days that it’s easy to take your social media presence for granted.
But putting your social media on auto pilot or neglecting it all
together can be a huge mistake because these different platforms
are excellent networking tools. Social media gives you the
opportunity to connect with your audience and establish your
brand with them on a day-to-day basis in a personal way that
your website can’t. Remember, your site is sitting out there in
cyberspace all by its lonesome, and it takes someone specifically
searching for it to find it. With social media, however, you’re
going to where the people are—billions of people who are
looking for something new to connect with. You can be one of
those somethings.
When you consider how to attract those in your niche, consider

this: It’s more than likely that everyone in your target market
is on some form of social media—and most of them are on it
almost 24/7. With smartphone usage soaring sky-high, people
literally have their social media accounts at their fingertips at
all times of the day, and many constantly check their apps on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. If they’re
always on these services, you should be too.
I listed a few of the main social media sites in that previous

paragraph, but there are many more specialized services out
there. Frankly, a business can get lost trying to market on all of
them, so try to focus on the platform that’s the most relevant to
what you do, and dominate it.
Here are some quick takes on the primary social media sites I
mentioned:
• Facebook is the biggest and probably the best social media

site. It is an excellent place to establish your social media
base.
• Pinterest is great for recipes, designs, and anything primarily
visual.
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• The visual also dominates on Instagram, since it’s all photo

based.
• LinkedIn is the place to go for business-to-business
marketing because you’re only dealing with professionals.
• Twitter is primarily useful to lead people to other, more
substantial social media posts. It’s hard to really say much
using only 140 characters.
In all likelihood, Facebook is where you want to be. That’s where

you can run a gift card contest, thank a great customer, announce
a new product or service, profile people on your staff, and drive
folks to your website. It’s also a chance to build your reputation
as an online expert where you can share links to your content that
demonstrate your expertise and provide short “daily tips” that
deliver a small pop of value to your audience.
Some people struggle to provide regular content for their social

media pages. This is where you should feel free to repurpose
stuff from your website, your blogsite, your marketing emails,
your books, videos, or any type of content you’re generating to
bolster your expert status. You can also create relevant, funny
or meaningful memes through countless free meme generators
accessible online. If you’re good at creating memes, leverage
that talent! Impactful memes spread like wildfire. Pictures
and videos always spur more activity, such as likes, shares, and
views, compared to just straight text. Keep that in mind, too,
when you’re posting on your social media sites.
Finally, social media is at its best when it creates dynamic

conversations. So follow up and respond to posts about your
business as well as comments on your page. Try to create
engagement whenever possible. Yes, the Internet can be a little
like the Wild West in that you never know when somebody’s
going to try to gun you down, but keep your end of social media
conversations as positive as possible—and duck out gracefully
if things get ugly. If a dissatisfied customer pops up publicly on
your page in an effort to disrupt your messaging, ask them to
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YOUR IDEAL PLATFORM
message you privately. Then attempt to resolve the complaint out

of the public eye.
Connecting People to Your Platform:

The Lead Magnet Strategy
Once your hub is built and your social media presence is secure,
you’ll want to find ways to attract your niche to your platform.
That’s where the lead magnet strategy comes into play. You want
to grab people’s attention? Using a lead magnet is a good way to
do it—if done correctly.
A lead magnet is something of interest or value that you provide,

usually free of charge, to a potential customer of your business.
Whatever you’re offering must be of so much interest or value
that a prospect is willing to give you their contact information in
order to get it. This, in turn, allows you to make them a part of
your platform and engage with them on a regular basis.
Generally, a lead magnet is some kind of educational product,

such as a special report, eBook, or video that is (a) directly
relevant to your business and (b) has an enticing title that
promises to answer a burning question or satisfy an urgent need.
Why an educational product? Because it’s a great way to claim
your authority and demonstrate your expertise.
Of course, most people aren’t really all that excited about getting
an educational product, even it’s free. (You probably didn’t do
cartwheels when the teacher gave out free textbooks on the
first day of class, either.) That’s why your lead magnet must be
squarely focused on one or more of your niche’s wants and needs.
As a veteran of the fitness business, I can tell you from experience
that giving away a freebee explaining the best way to do a dead
lift exercise will never be as successful as a PDF entitled “How
to Get into Your Skinny Jeans in 30 Days or Less.”
People are cautious about giving away their contact info these
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days and with good reason. Their email addresses end up on a lot
of marketing lists, then their inboxes start overflowing with spam.
Your lead magnet has to seem worth that risk to a prospect; they
have to feel like the information you’re providing is important
enough to them to allow you to market to them. It doesn’t have to
be a five hundred-page book or even a fifty-page book. Frankly,
you can make a great lead magnet out of five pages of content if
it’s the right five pages. Most people are too busy to handle more.
You can also make a lead magnet out of a webinar, a video, or
even a slide show.
The Lead Magnet That Repels Instead of Attracts
So a lead magnet seems like a simple and effective strategy to get

leads, right? It doesn’t require any commitment beyond providing
an email address because there’s no money involved—and it’s
easy to promote through Facebook and other online marketing.
All you need to do is trumpet your enticing title and wait for the
clicks to come in.
And yet… this is where lot of entrepreneurs make a fatal mistake.
Any relationship must start out on the right foot. You don’t show
up for a date holding a bouquet of dead flowers, right? Well, too
often a lead magnet can end up being about as appealing as a
dozen rotting roses. That happens when entrepreneurs don’t put
enough care into what they’re giving away.
It starts when their mind-set causes them to think, I need to

capture people’s contact information. It may seem a little silly,
but the word “capture” really bothers me. It makes it sound too
much like a hostage situation, like you’re trying to take innocent
people hostage with your marketing, trapping them and putting
them at your mercy. It makes lead gathering seem less than a real
above-board trade, an equal exchange of value. The result of that
kind of attitude can result in creating a lead magnet that is, to put
it bluntly, a piece of crap.
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YOUR IDEAL PLATFORM
How many of you have ever downloaded a freebee online

because the landing page looked really good? You saw it and said
to yourself, Man, this looks awesome! It seemed to be promising
you the world in a PDF. Then you downloaded it, and it was
terrible. I mean, TERRIBLE. It looked like it was formatted,
written, and designed by a kindergarten class, and it contained
no information that you couldn’t have figured out for yourself.
When that happens, you feel like you were tricked. And your
attitude toward the marketer is, “Okay…you fooled me. You
got my e-mail address. But you know what? You're not getting
anything else. You're not getting my time. You're not getting
my attention. You're not getting my money.” Suddenly that lead
magnet is actually an anchor—an anchor that sinks any hope of
ever getting that person back in your good graces again.
One of my guidelines for a lead magnet has been to give away

something that’s worth paying for. That starts the relationship on
a hugely positive note, and it can still end up as a minimal cost
for you on your side.
For instance, my wife, Holly, published a cookbook that racked

up over $40,000 in sales. We had tangible proof that people were
willing to pay for that cookbook, so we felt great about using it as
a lead magnet for her business. Those leads obviously felt pretty
good about getting a real book for free. That created some real
positive vibes because we delivered something more than we had
to. Those leads then became a lot more open to what we had to
say next because there was real value in what we gave them.
“Value” is a big part of the lead magnet equation. Yours should

contain a lot of it. It makes your giveaway stand out from other
offers, and it also makes you look good in consumers’ eyes.
Most importantly, it’s a very easy, low-barrier way to begin a
relationship. So position yourself as an authority by including
good, hard, and compelling information in your lead magnet.
Make sure they feel as though they're getting a lot from you just
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for typing in their email address. When you do that, your lead
magnet represents the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Speaking of relationships … well, that’s our next chapter.
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THE IDEAL RELATIONSHIP
CHAPTER 10
Thanks to your targeted branding and a valuable and enticing

lead magnet, people are showing up at your virtual door. That’s
fantastic. Now, how do you convince them to stay? How do you
get them to understand that it’s worth their time to develop a
relationship with you? How do you create the kind of ongoing
value that will continue to interest them until they finally decide
to buy?
Building a positive and productive business relationship isn’t all

that different from developing relationships with our favorite
friends and family members. If we treat people with respect and
show an interest in who they are and what they want, they’ll feel
appreciated and will want to be around us. If we act like we
couldn’t care less about them, however, they’ll drift away until
they disappear for good.
It’s as simple as this:
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #17: IF WE DON’T PROVIDE

VALUE TO A LEAD, THEY WON’T BE INCLINED TO
PAY US ANY MIND.
Knowing and Engaging Your Niche
Communicating through your platform only works if you

understand who your audience is and what their interests are.
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With that insight, you can appeal to their interests in a way they’ll
be eager to respond to. In Chapter 7, we looked at why you need
to discover the attributes of your IDEAL Niche (your most likely
customers or patients) and what they might want from a business
like yours. Hopefully you made some notes about your customer’s
or patient’s wants and needs, because now we’re going to put that
valuable information into action.
Before we look at your business specifically, consider this

illustration and how businesses connect with you: Imagine that
you’re watching TV (the old fashioned programing that still
has commercials). You see a number of different kinds of car
advertisements and notice that, although the car commercials are
all selling the same thing—a car—each company is marketing
their particular vehicles in their own particular way. Subaru hits
hard on its safety record. Ford pushes the awesome power of its
trucks. Cadillac wants to sell upscale as cool. Nissan is selling
an incredible driving experience, and Buick wants you to know
its cars ain’t what Buicks used to be. Each of these companies is
trying to share a message that connects with what it believes is
important to its prospective customers.
These car manufacturers have done tons of market research to

determine every vehicle’s IDEAL Niche, which is why each
model has a commercial tailored specifically to that niche.
You’ll see very few commercials that simply proclaim, “This car
is good.” No, they’re going after specific demographic groups
and the individual needs, wants, and preferences of that group. A
successful platform must take the same approach.
You must present yourself in a way that encourages connection

with your audience—you must be somebody they want to
hear from (and ultimately work with). And you can’t be truly
magnetic to the public unless you provide “the personal touch”
and demonstrate to those within your IDEAL Niche that you get
them.
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The ability for a business owner to create personal connections

with clients, prospects or patients is becoming a lost art. We rely
too heavily on technology to maintain connections and neglect
to really think about what the person on the other end is all
about. As an entrepreneur, you understand that nobody wants
to buy from someone they don’t like and don’t trust. But what
are you doing to help them know, like and trust you? Building
positive relationships with your customers or patients is crucial
to your business’s success. To be successful at connecting (and
at maintaining customer or patient relationships), you need to do
three things:
Be Likeable
When you’re likeable, you’ve taken the first step toward being
magnetic. People will enjoy dealing with you. So avoid being
negative or snippy in your content or in your social media posts.
Be positive and always offer answers. When you don’t know the
answers, send them to someone who does because that impresses
people. Have a sense of humor, and don’t take yourself too
seriously—but be serious about following through on your brand
messaging.
Be Visible
If you really want to make a personal connection with your

audience, you must show up where your customers, patients and
prospects are already hanging out. We can be the greatest at what
we do; we can be likeable, and have authority, and all that other
good stuff, but if our IDEAL Niche is unable to see any of that in
action, it doesn’t really matter, does it? That’s why social media
should be an integral part of your platform. Make the effort to
show up where your audience is.
Deliver Consistent Value
To develop the strongest possible long-term connections, you

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must add value often and show up consistently. And you must
do these things in tandem. Doing one or the other doesn’t do the
trick. If you deliver value every few months or so, your audience
may find the content interesting, but between interactions, they
may well forget you exist. On the other hand, if you keep showing
up with something new every day, but that something new is just
a sales pitch (or something about your cat), people are going to
first tune you out and then just plain turn you off. They’ll be
unfollowing, unsubscribing, and doing whatever it takes to get
you out of their inbox if your content doesn’t provide any value
to their lives.
When you provide consistent value, however, people look forward

to what you’re going to come up with next. Even when you have
an occasional post or video that’s not all that great, they’ll forgive
you because you’ve already demonstrated that most of the time,
you’re delivering something interesting instead of just offering
“empty calories.”
When you get this process of delivering consistent value down,

the four pillars of your platform get built pretty quickly. If you
remember, those pillars are attention, authority, trust, and
engagement. Here is how you bring them into the mix: You
retain your audience’s attention by regularly posting information
that’s related to their interests. You gain authority because every
day (or every few days) you prove your expertise. You gain
trust because you’re delivering value consistently over time.
All of these activities lead to stronger engagement and deeper
connection with your platform.
The end result of all that work is you are being seen as a person
who’s making your audience’s lives a little better day by day.
That’s what really motivates your audience to keep reading your
posts and watching your videos; it’s what also deepens their
respect for who you are and what you do to grow. Eventually,
your relationship gets to a point where there’s no reason they
wouldn’t buy from you when they’re ready.
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As you build your platform and your connection with your IDEAL
Niche, here are a few other important elements to consider.
Stick to a Schedule
Set a schedule you know you can meet and stick to it. For example,
I’m big on making sure my email newsletter gets sent every
single day. In ten years, I’ve missed that newsletter schedule a
grand total of zero times. That might be too much for you, but
you should show up as often as possible and on a dependable
schedule. Whether it’s a certain number of Facebook posts each
week, how often you blog, or how frequently you post a new
video, be consistent so the people who follow you know when to
expect to hear from you.
By the way, following through on this kind of schedule not only

adds value to your audience, it adds value to you. The more you
generate content, the more you show up consistently, the better
you will get at communicating and marketing yourself. I can say
that with confidence because that’s definitely how it’s worked for
me. Sticking to a schedule trains you to generate quality content
on a regular basis. You’ll know when you should start cranking
up to deliver your brilliance to your niche, and you’ll suddenly
have developed a very productive and positive habit.
Play to Your Strengths
I talked a bit about the importance of playing to your strengths

already, and in this arena of connecting, it’s something you
definitely want to do. Think about how you communicate best.
Do you love being in front of the camera? Are you a whiz at
writing clever and compelling blogs? Is your strong suit tracking
down informative hard-to-find articles that relate to your business
and then sharing them on social media? For the most magnetic
results, focus on the kind of media content for which you have
a natural talent and that best showcases you and your brand. By
the same token, don’t be afraid to train yourself in other areas so
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you can switch it up a little. At first I didn’t know what to do in

front of a video camera, but I learned, and now it’s in the mix for
my content.
Don’t Worry about a Weak “First Response”
As I said before, when you start out, it’s easy to think that
nobody cares about all the greatness you’re putting out there.
Don’t sweat it. Your attitude toward your audience almost has to
be, “Hey, if I keep going, I’m going to wear them down at some
point. Eventually I’ll say something that clicks, and they’ll want
to buy from me.” You don’t have any idea how long it might
take. I can’t tell you how many people on my newsletter list
have said, “I’ve been reading these things for five years,” and I
look at them and realize, “Wait a minute. This person has never
spent a dime with me.” But even though they haven’t, they’re
still paying attention. Because they stay on the list, many of
them do eventually end up hiring me for private coaching or
some other service. You just never know. But you’ll never find
out if you don’t stick with it.
Accelerating Your Platform
If your platform doesn’t seem to be developing as quickly as

you’d like, there are a few other ways you can boost its power
and effectiveness. Here are four of them:
Accelerant #1: Borrowed Authority
Whenever you can get the endorsement or participation of

someone who already has authority with your niche, you receive
some implied authority as a result.
For example, if, when I was a fitness coach, Arnold

Schwarzenegger happened to stop by and tell one of my clients,
“This Pat Rigsby? He is the REAL Terminator,” well, that would
have certainly rocketed my reputation with that person!
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The same is true for you. If you can get someone who is a
known expert or celebrity in your industry to participate in your
platform, you can’t help but look good—and gain some authority
as a result. For example, I’ve participated in television shows and
books that featured other more high-profile business experts. I
did that because those kinds of projects put me on the same level
as those folks, even if temporarily. I’m then able to point back
to those projects to show potential clients the kind of company I
keep.
Accelerant #2: Writing a Book
Most people have never written a book and never will. They
think anyone who does write a book must really be the real deal
when it comes to expertise. Therefore, if you write a book, you
will be automatically granted a certain degree of authority, even
by people who never read a page of your book. Just knowing that
you are a published author is enough proof of your credibility for
them!
Yes, to an extent, this is silly. The world has no shortage of authors

these days. The massive number of books published every year
on Amazon is almost enough to convince you that everyone in
the world has written a book (or maybe two or three). But don’t
let the numbers stop you. The fact is, publishing a book is still
a quick ticket to attaining substantial authority. Even if you self-
publish, it’s still an impressive feat to become an author. In a way,
a book is the most powerful business card you can have; it’s a
credibility tool that always does the job.
(By the way, you can create other information products that
can also build authority for you, such as a DVD or online video
instruction series. These can also be impactful.)
Accelerant #3: Speaking Engagements and Seminars
Showing up and speaking in person is a great way to demonstrate
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your expertise and build up your personal brand. An in-person

meeting with people creates the strongest kind of connection you
can imagine. People feel like they know who you are and, just as
importantly, they can find out how much you know through your
presentation.
At the same time, you don’t have to get too complex or sophisticated
with your presentation or the information you provide. As you
consider what to include in your presentation, be cognizant about
your level of knowledge versus where your audience is in regard
to your topic or area of expertise. The people filling the seats are
most likely beginners at something in which you’re an expert.
Now, not everybody has great public speaking skills. For my part,
I used to be deathly afraid of public speaking. Then I realized
that if I got over my fear, I would have another significant way
to expand my platform. Keeping that in mind, I took over a
weekly workshop. The first time I did it, I ended up drenched in
sweat. But gradually I came to love it. Like anything else, public
speaking requires practice, so put yourself out there and you’ll
improve your speaking skills (and comfort factor) rapidly.
Accelerant #4: Outside Media
When you make yourself a part of other people’s media platforms,

it takes you beyond your usual crowd, exposes you to new leads,
and expands your reputation as a leading expert in your field.
Traditional media platforms still work, and they still have a bit
more prestige than online news sites. They can be as small and
localized as the town newspaper or as huge and worldwide as
CNN. Whatever the venue or size, it’s great if you’re used in
a straight-ahead news story as an authority on whatever they’re
talking about. People seeing that story will walk away with a
higher opinion of you as a result. You might also look to be
interviewed on TV or radio talk shows that need your kind of
content. Admittedly, traditional media doesn’t pack the punch
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it used to, but it still has a lot of cachet. I know on my street

alone, at least half the people still have a newspaper sitting below
their mailbox every morning. So what’s the downside to getting
myself in that newspaper?
New media—blogs, podcasts, online news/lifestyle sites—

are what people are consuming more of today. If you can be a
guest on someone else’s popular podcast or contribute a column
to a blogsite that gets a million hits, you will boost your name
recognition and maybe motivate some folks to seek out your
website and become part of your list.
Deposits and Withdrawals: The Currency of Relationships
I’ve hit pretty hard on the idea that you must provide value to
people on a regular basis. There’s a reason for that. Every time you
deliver that value, you’re making a deposit on that relationship.
You’re earning credit. Having that positive on your side of the
ledger creates goodwill on your followers’ side. You’re giving
more than you’re getting.
Some outfits, however, attempt to take more than they give. I’m
sure you’ve encountered marketers and businesses who, once
they have your name, begin a relentless campaign to separate
you from your money. For them, it’s all about flash sales and
special deals. But those deals stop seeming so special when
you’re bombarded with them. After a while, you completely tune
them out.
That’s because those businesses are constantly making

withdrawals from your relationship. They want it to be all about
them making a sale, not you getting any real value from them.
There’s a negative on their side of the ledger, and there’s no reason
for you to want that relationship to continue.
With your platform, you want to connect more than market. You
want to help more than sell. You want to keep their attention, not
drive them away.
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I can’t say it more simply than this:
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #18: GIVE MORE THAN YOU

GET, AND YOU’LL END UP GETTING A LOT MORE
THAN YOU GIVE.
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3 MILLION REASONS WHY MY PLATFORM WORKS
CHAPTER 11
3 MILLION REASONS WHY

MY PLATFORM WORKS
3,000,000.
Yep, that number up there is three million. That’s approximately

how many words I’ve written during the past ten years for my
daily email newsletter. That’s a lot of words, and if I’d set out to
write that many the task may have seemed overwhelming. But I
never considered it intimidating because I composed those three
million words one email at a time. I never had that kind of crazy
goal in mind. Never in my life did I think I’d ever write three
million words. But I’ve done it. And more importantly, it’s paid
off for me.
In this chapter, I want to talk a little about how I’ve made this
aspect of my platform work like gangbusters for me and my
business brand, and I also want to share a few of those three
million words so you can get an idea of what I do and how I do
it. It may not be what works for you…but it will give you an idea
of how to build relationships that last (through value your niche
can use).
The Daily Email
Every single morning, including Saturday and Sunday, I send out

an email to everyone on my list, a total of forty thousand people.
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However, I don’t write for forty thousand people. When I write

each line of my newsletter, I approach it as though I’m talking to
one single person in a casual conversation.
Also, I don’t try to solve all the world’s problems in that one
email. I focus on one simple idea that has the potential to make
my recipients’ businesses or lives just a little bit better. Because
I am offering that kind of positive content, I just might inspire
them to read the next day’s email to see what they will get out of
that one.
By doing that every day, I build a lasting relationship with those

who like what I say and want more of it.
Technically speaking, it’s the simplest thing in the world: a short

email, entirely text, no HTML. It’s just like a note to a friend.
I wouldn’t worry about putting fancy graphics on a note to a
friend, right? I just write in a conversational tone, nothing flashy.
It feels personal. It feels real. It doesn’t feel much like marketing
to me or my readers.
But it is.
I don’t come right out and ask them to hire me in the body of
the email, but in a short and simple P.S., I do offer my services.
But I make sure the balance always tips strongly toward offering
value and making the connection, which, I believe gives me an
advantage over the others who use their marketing lists almost
exclusively as a transactional tool. To those kinds of marketers,
their database isn’t filled with people, it’s packed with potential
dollar signs. Of course, I want to make some sales as a result of
my emails—but my attitude is to approach them as people with
whom I want to build relationships, not just make a quick buck
from.
To me, the perfect vehicle to build relationships is my daily

emails. Here’s the beauty of the era we live in right now: We
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have so much technology at our disposal that it makes it easy to

reach massive numbers of people in a micro-second. Thirty years
ago, I would have had to go to countless Chamber of Commerce
events and speak to numerous other groups to get anywhere close
to connecting with forty thousand people. Now, with email, I just
click “Send” and it’s done.
With that click, I strengthen my platform every single day.

Through these emails, people get to know me and learn what
I’m all about. They can see I’m consistent and dependable (after
all, that email shows up every day), and they will recognize my
authority because I share so many things I’ve learned. Eventually,
that consistent delivery of valuable content creates the most
essential element: trust. When those on my list develop that trust
in me, when they realize I have something valuable to offer them,
they feel confident about contacting me for help when they have
a business problem.
And suddenly, I have a new client.
Want to know more about my philosophy when it comes to email

marketing? Let me share one of my emails that deals with this
very subject:
During the past couple of weeks, I've been asked to share my

thoughts about email marketing to several different groups of
entrepreneurs.
Now, I'm not going to bore you with all the details of those
presentations, but I thought it might be useful to give you
some of the more important takeaways, knowing full well that
I'm basically sharing what's probably my biggest competitive
advantage.
See, I suspect that I view email differently than most people who
use it as a tool to sell their products or services.
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I think of it as simply a means of connecting.
I don't really think in terms of list size or content... and I certainly

don't think of the people who are kind enough to give me their
attention as transactions.
Back in my college baseball days, I recruited by making calls,

sending notes, and meeting face-to-face. I wanted to connect
with players, parents, and coaches in a way that fostered trust
and hopefully led to the right players coming to be part of our
program.
If a player chose to go somewhere else, I wished them well...

knowing that our school wasn't going to be a fit for everyone.
Sometimes those players who started somewhere else eventually
decided to transfer and join us. (I don't really care about being
the first choice... only the best choice:))
So when it came to “marketing” (if that's how we’re defining

my emails...I don't) via email...I pretty much just took the same
approach.
• Try to connect. If you're willing to make the time to read

what I write, I want to make your day a little better. Whether
it's giving you a tip that helps your business, sharing a story
that motivates you, or simply reminding you that you're not
alone in this whole entrepreneurial thing. I want you to be
happy you made the time for me.
• Treat the daily essay I write as I would a note to a friend...
because that's what I want it to be. Now, I know that I'm not
going to get the opportunity to meet everyone who reads
this face-to-face, but I still recognize what many don't: I'm
not sending my daily email to a list of tens of thousands...I'm
sending it to YOU. We're all individuals, and I want to treat
you and respect you accordingly. I need to make it worth
your time and your attention.
• The “connection” part of what I write is way more important
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than the “sales” part. Sure, I'm an entrepreneur just like

you, but I know that if I do a good job of adding value to
your life regularly, when I have something for sale that
is a fit for you, you'll consider it. But I think most people
approach it in the opposite fashion: they sell and then try to
fill in the gaps with “content.”
• As for that “content” thing, I don't really use that word
when I'm describing what I try to do. To me, content is
just another word for information. And I don't know that
we need more information, so I want to deliver more than
just information. I want to deliver help so you can simplify
things. I want to make it easier to apply what you know. I
want to deliver coaching, motivation, strategy...but not just
more random information.
Obviously, there is more to my approach to email. But all in all,

it's just not as complicated as most entrepreneurs seem to think
it is.
Value people's time.
Be worthy of their attention.
Find ways to make their day better.
Respect each reader as an individual.
Write like you're writing to a friend...because, hopefully, you are.
Think of what you'd say if that person were standing in front of

you...then write it.
Do those things, and you'll be writing better emails than me in

no time.
Dedicated to Your Success,

Pat
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P.S.—I get asked pretty regularly about teaching people how to

build an email marketing system. If that's of interest to you, reply
and let me know. I don't have something planned as of yet...but
it's come up enough that I'd consider it.
That’s the kind of email I send out every morning (and you’ll
notice how I get my marketing message in my P.S.). I usually
write it the day before and, again, I do this every single day of the
week and have done it for the past ten years.
My email newsletter has become a huge business driver for me.

There’s not a week that goes by that I don't have somebody reply
to one of these emails and write, "Hey, I've been on your email
list for four years. I'd like to talk to you about coaching."
I’ve used my email system as the driver to sell over 250 franchises.
Obviously I'm not selling a franchise through emails, but those
emails are the catalyst. People reading them get to know where
I’m coming from and discover that my philosophy and ideas are
the right fit for what they want to do. They see I can address their
specific business problems in specific ways.
Not long ago, I had a doctor who consults with NASA write
to me and say, "You don’t know me; a friend forwarded your
email along to me so I got on your list. I just want you to know
how much you're helping me and how much you're helping other
people. You probably have no idea how much you’re giving us
all.” I get these nice responses on a regular basis, and it motivates
me to keep going.
Here’s another one of my daily emails that’s a little counter-

intuitive. But that’s what I think makes it interesting to my
readers…
One of the common things that I see thrown around is this

concept of following your passion.
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When it comes to building a business, I think it’s a pretty bad

idea.
Let me explain.
See, following your passion seems like a cop out to me. It’s just
not how things work in a practical sense for most of us…and it’s
not for the reasons you might think.
For most of us…what we’re passionate about changes. As a

young child, I was passionate about playing with trucks and
drawing. In elementary school, I loved playing in the woods and
baseball. In high school, baseball was still a passion…but I was
interested in weightlifting, girls, and all the other “high school
boy” stuff. I’ve always been an avid reader too.
What was I NEVER passionate about?
Business.
Writing.
Speaking.
But my current business is serving as a coach to entrepreneurs,

primarily in the fitness industry…a career I never knew existed
up until the age of 30.
So what’s my point?
Three things, really…
1. I think business success is more about matching your

strengths with opportunities.
2. We don’t know what we don’t know.
3. What we are excited about or passionate about changes
over time.
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Over time I got to blend my existing strengths and develop new

ones and match them with a professional opportunity—helping
business owners like you—whom I’ve grown to love.
Now was that me blindly following my passion?
Not a chance. Heck, much of my business has been built on

writing… roughly three million words in the past eleven years.
I couldn’t stand to write earlier in my life. But as I got better,

I enjoyed it. Now I write every day and it’s one of my favorite
things I do. I didn’t know that I’d like it eventually. I didn’t know
a career like mine could even exist.
So that’s why I tell you to play to your strengths or to focus

on your unique ability. Because if you are strong in an area
and match that with an opportunity—or create an opportunity
around those strengths—that’s where success happens.
And that match is often something you’ll come to love doing if

you build your business the right way.
Make sense?
I hope so… because I want you to succeed, and simply following

your passion oblivious to everything else won’t make that
happen.

Pat
P.S. If you’d like to work with me to build a business around your

strengths, reply and let me know.
Be Real with People
By the way, don’t be afraid to be a human being when you use
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these kinds of channels. By that I mean, it’s okay to show your

flaws or that you’re vulnerable. It helps you connect to your
similarly human audience.
For instance, here’s one of my emails that’s all about my mistakes:
I often share things that have worked for me or have helped

me grow my business, but today I wanted to share some of my
biggest business mistakes for three reasons:
• If I can help you avoid the same mistakes, that would be

awesome.
• It’s fun to see how things are despite all these mistakes.
• Hopefully you’ll see that you can screw up a lot and still
build the business you want.
So here they are in no particular order:
1. Not putting in the work to get great at paid traffic (I’m ok,
but not nearly where I should be and I’m remedying that
now).
2. Saying “Yes” to too many things (there are plenty of good
opportunities… but they’re not all the right opportunities).
3. Overvaluing the things I’m not passionate about in
business and overpaying to fill that void (things like
accounting and project management are very important,
but they’re not things you give up equity to address).
4. Not investing for my kids or my retirement early enough
(even when I didn’t have much money, I should have done
more because I had to play a lot of catch up.)
5. Not following my gut soon enough when it was time to
change (twice I’ve felt like it was time to make a big career
move about a year before I actually pulled the trigger… I
should have moved faster).
6. Not focusing on my IDEAL Business a little sooner (I
focused more on “big” than “IDEAL”).
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7. Thinking too small

8. Stepping back from going out and speaking and networking
at events that weren’t mine for a couple of years (those are
always high ROI events for me, and I didn’t spend enough
time on them for about a thirty-month span).
9. Not supporting my clients, students, Masterminders,
or Franchisees who went into business coaching soon
enough (now it’s one of the things that I’m most proud of).
10. Not spending more time on Holly’s business.
11. Allowing myself to get pulled away from playing to my
strengths from time to time.
12. Not sharing enough stories in copy or marketing (when I
do, the message is better and it’s more well received).
13. Occasionally letting my competitive side get the best of
me.
14. Working with too many people who weren’t a good fit.
15. Getting pulled away from coaching (now virtually
everything I offer has a coaching component).
16. Not working with baseball in some way sooner (now I’ve
got a couple clients who are “baseball guys” and I look
forward to keeping that as a segment of whom I work with.
I really enjoy it, so it should be there).
17. Taking too long to figure out who my Perfect Clients are.
18. Getting pulled away from my vision.
19. The times I’ve not been part of a Mastermind group (I
always thrive when I’m around top-level peers).
20. Letting businesses become bloated (now it’s all about
what you keep… not what you gross).
21. Not always writing my best copy (I look back now and
see sales letters that I know I could have increased
conversions on by 25 percent if I would have put more
time into them).
22. Spreading myself too thin…which led, in part, to #20 (I’ve
owned over twenty businesses in fitness in eleven years. In
hindsight that’s too many :)).
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23. Not doing enough with upsells (I’ve only done about 40
percent of what I should have and could have done with
them, knowing what I know now).
24. Going through periods where I didn’t spend enough time
with the people I care about most outside of Holly, Tyler,
and Alex.
And finally...
25. Settling for things being okay—I started a business to have

the income, impact, and lifestyle I wanted…that’s why I
left coaching, so I could be more “in control” of that.
But from time to time I settled for things doing “okay”
in business (by the standards of what I want) because I
had an awesome family, earned a nice income, and had
accomplished more than I originally thought I could when
I went into business in the first place. Now I know better.
You can build your IDEAL Business, but it’s not going to happen
without getting clear about what it is and settling for nothing
less than getting there.
Hopefully these mistakes of mine will help you avoid some of

your own :)

Pat
Drill Down on a Single Point
I’d like to share one more email with you to demonstrate how I
try to “drill down” on one topic and use it to give value to my
readers. I’d also like to leave you with this last thought when it
comes to how you interact with your marketing list: The more
real you are with the people on your list, the more you come to
them on their level, the more accepting they will be of you—and
the more they’ll respond to what you’re saying.
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I’ve had a good couple of weeks. I’ve gotten to speak to some

really, really successful people… and every time that happens I
learn something.
So one of the things that I’ve been reminded of in that span is

that the most successful people don’t try to be or do everything.
They master the few.
They have focus.
And that’s different from being efficient.
In fact, I remember talking to one owner of a pretty big business

who was consumed by efficiency. Everything needed to be more
efficient. But the thing he was missing is illustrated in this Peter
Drucker quote:
“There's nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should

not be done at all.”
See, most of us spend great portions of our day trying to get

better and do efficiently things that we shouldn't even be doing
at all. Whether you call it your area of strength or your unique
ability…that makes no difference. What makes a difference is
that you spend about 80–90 percent of your professional time
doing that stuff. If you can do that… you’ll be so far ahead of
everyone else; it won’t even be competition anymore.
Your ability to focus on those things—your $100- or $1000-an-

hour tasks that you do best and not get distracted by the $8-an-
hour stuff or the stuff that might be good but isn’t your focus—
will move you more quickly toward your goals.
But it requires you to master a skill that few of us have.
That skill is the ability to say, “No.”
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In fact, I’ll admit that this is probably my biggest professional

failing.
See, Warren Buffet is an icon I admire. This is what he has to

say on the subject:
“For every one hundred great opportunities that are brought to

me, I say no ninety-nine times.”
That's what he attributes his great wealth and success to… saying
“no,” ninety-nine out of one hundred times. I’m good at saying
“no” to doing a lot of tech stuff or doing tasks that don’t allow me
to use my unique ability…but I’ll be the first to admit that saying
“no” to great opportunities is tough. It’s something I really have
worked on over the past couple of years. The willingness to say,
“It’s great, but it’s not a great fit for me.”
But this focus isn’t just focusing on your unique ability or the
ability to say “no” to tasks or opportunity. It’s also about
focusing on only offering what you can do better than everyone
else. Deciding what not to do. What not to offer.
If you do a few things incredibly well and a few others are done
in a pretty ordinary (or worse way)…just get rid of the stuff
that’s not up to your standards. See, success has less to do with
what we can get ourselves to do and more to do with keeping
ourselves from doing what we shouldn’t.
So what does this mean to you? Well, look at your schedule.

What are you doing that you should have said “no” to? Look
at the marketing that you’re doing that isn’t working versus the
things that are working well?
Can you pour the resources of the things that aren’t effective into
the things that are strong?
Think about how you’re spending your time and your resources.
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If you had to eliminate half of it, what would you cut?
Think about what you offer. Should some of it be eliminated?

What about those clients or patients you don’t enjoy?Can you
get rid of them?
Now I know that you can’t just go around saying “no” to this
and eliminating that. Once you’ve opened up some bandwidth…
then you just commit to doing fewer things extraordinarily well.
Stop trying to be good at everything. Start being great at a few

things. My guess is that you already do it in certain areas of your
life. You may outsource your automotive maintenance or putting
a new roof on your house. You say “no” to doing a lot of things
you could do already…because it’s not what you could do, it’s
what you should do. So figure out what else you are willing to
give up in order to get what you really want.
Then do it.
The most successful people I’ve met have all been willing
to give up some things—the quest to be good at everything,
opportunities sent their way, tasks that don’t fit their talents—to
get the outcomes they want.
It works for them, and it will work for you too.

Pat
You don’t have to send your content through emails, but you do
need to have some vehicle to deliver value on a regular basis.
Some people thrive as public speakers, but in today’s world of
Internet domination, you need to develop one online channel
that you’re a champion at, whether it’s videos, blogs, emails, or
even just short impactful tweets. Choose your medium and start
connecting.
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IDEAL TIME MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 12
Okay, we’ve just spent a whole lot of time on business. Now, let’s
get back to real life—your life.
Sure, all the information I’ve shared in the past few chapters is
important to your professional success, but your professional
success should co-exist with your personal happiness. In my
IDEAL Business model, entrepreneurs always pursue their
professional goals and protect their personal goals. They know
nobody else is going to do that for them.
The reality is, entrepreneurs are driven. For most of us, it can be
really easy to lose sight of the clock and “keep on keepin’ on”
way past the time when we should have gone home for some
R&R. It’s understandable—we’re passionate about what we do
(and if you’re not, you should probably sell out and become a
nine-to-fiver).
However, entrepreneurs can also end up working around the

clock, not because of passion, but because of the pressure that
goes with owning your own business. You can start buying into
the dangerous idea that if you don’t stop working, you won’t fail.
That’s a recipe for burnout.
Time doesn’t have to be your enemy. You can make it your ally.
You have the power to not only get done what you need to get done
with your business, but also enjoy the kind of quality personal
time it takes to build a fulfilling life outside of your work.
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What I’ve learned through the years is that there’s no glory in

being busy for the sake of being busy. A big danger sign looms
when you keep asking yourself, “How do I get it all done?”
Because the answer to this one is relatively simple—you don’t.
If you’re working endless hours trying to get everything done,
you’ll wear yourself down to nothing in the process. The trick is
to identify priorities and tackle them in order. Some minor stuff
might be left on the table, but the key word there is “minor.”
I love the story about Warren Buffet’s personal pilot. Unsure

what he wanted to do with his life he asked Buffet for advice.
Buffet told him to write down his twenty-five most important
goals. The pilot struggled to finish the list, and when he did,
he brought it back to Buffet who then told him to circle the five
most important goals on that list. The pilot did as Buffet asked
and returned, asking him what he should do with the remaining
twenty goals.
Buffet simply said, “Throw them away.”
The moral of that story is that not everything can be a priority.

We can’t tackle twenty-five goals at one time. Even ten is a big
stretch. You've got to focus on what truly matters, and that's the
key to being efficient with your time and getting done what’s most
important. If you don’t get to dust the staplers, you’ll survive.
It all begins with looking at time from an entirely different

viewpoint. The quote that sticks with me on this subject comes
from the great personal development guru Earl Nightingale who
said, “You can't manage time. We all have the same twenty-four
hours in the day. What you can manage is activity.”
In the next few pages, I’m going to provide some practical advice
on how to deal with every business owner’s biggest challenge:
time. These won’t be the usual boilerplate time management
clichés (so don’t worry about that). Instead, I’m providing hard-
won lessons that I’ve learned from my own experience trying to
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do too much at once—and realizing I had to change my ways

before it was too late.
It all comes down to this:
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #19: MAKE YOUR LIFE A

SUCCESS, NOT JUST YOUR BUSINESS.
The Periodization Program
With my fitness clients, I used a methodology known as

periodization that allowed them to use a year-round training
schedule to reach peak performance at certain intervals. They
had to change up their workouts to make sure they weren’t going
too hard too fast toward specific fitness goals. Otherwise, it could
be a disaster for their physical power.
The same holds true for an entrepreneur’s mental and physical

stamina. If you don’t know when to let up, when to call for the
cavalry and when to go full-throttle, you could burn yourself out
too quickly. Obviously, there will be times that are stressful and
difficult, but if you’re feeling that way almost every day of the
year, you’re heading for trouble. That’s why periodization is a
great tool for time management for every entrepreneur.
In the fitness world, periodization is based on three time cycles

of differing length:
• The Macrocycle (the big, overarching period, usually a

year).
• The Mesocycle (usually a few weeks that focus on one
specific aspect of training, such as muscle mass or aerobic
capacity).
• The Microcycle (typically a week or a group of training
sessions to accomplish one specific task).
I think you’ll find this to be a great template for managing
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your IDEAL Business, with some simple modifications. For

entrepreneurs, the periodization cycle breaks down like this:
• The Macrocycle represents a year.

• A Mesocycle represents a business quarter.
• A Microcycle represents a typical day.
Here’s how you can work with these three planning periods in
your IDEAL Business.
The Macrocycle
The Macrocycle represents your annual plan, and here’s where

I probably break with most time management experts. You see,
I don’t believe in putting that much actual planning into an
annual plan! Don’t get me wrong, yearly planning is important,
but because a year is a relatively long period of time; a lot of
unpredictable things can happen in a year that can knock your
strategies off-balance.
I prefer to focus more on scheduling than planning. I block out

on the calendar the days where I know certain things are going
to happen, both personally and professionally. From a personal
standpoint, I plug in holidays, vacations, and any other important
personal matters that will take me away from my business. Then
on the professional side, I plug in my company’s major calendar-
based items. For example, if your business is very seasonal, block
out your busy weeks and your not-so-busy weeks. If you have
some regular annual marketing or promotional pushes (or if you
want to start some), block those out as well. In addition, note
what week you need to begin preparing for these occasions and
create some deadlines for phases of any campaigns you plan to
implement. Also, make room for continuing your education in
your field. Are there seminars or conventions out-of-town that
you should attend? Do some research and see how those dates
line up with the rest of your year.
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In general, your Macrocycle plan for the year is mostly about

scheduling events you know are going to happen—or want to
happen—in a twelve-month span. You hopefully know when you
want to take time off, when you’ll be swamped with business,
and when you want to make a big marketing push. Schedule them
so you know when to work toward them and when you have to
work around them, if need be.
The Mesocycle
My approach to Mesocycle quarterly planning, in contrast, is

more like other people’s approach to annual planning. This is
where I like to get more into productive, goal-oriented thinking.
My focus is on making each twelve-week period count in a
significant way.
Why do I aim for goals in the Mesocycle rather than the

Macrocycle? Because I find that going for them in a shorter, more
compressed period motivates me, and I end up accomplishing
more. When you’re building toward a goal over an entire year,
it’s very easy to lose your momentum—that’s why so many New
Year’s Resolutions fall by the wayside. It’s typical for someone to
say, as February rolls around or even March, “I still have plenty of
time. I’ll get started later.” After all, you still have three-quarters
of the year to get to it. But when there’s always “later,” you either
never do or you get to it too late.
The same kind of thinking happens with year-long business goals.

We get all fired up in January to make a fresh start, but a few
weeks later, we find ourselves drifting away from our grandiose
objectives and end up doing things in the same way as we’ve
always done them.
With twelve-week planning, it’s not so easy to do that. With that

kind of focused time period, you might easily accomplish what’s
difficult to pull off in a year simply because of the different
perception of time. There’s more urgency to get to your goals
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before the end of the Mesocycle because you can always feel the
clock ticking. When that quarter is over and you’ve done what
you set out to do, you’re going to feel relieved and enjoy that end-
of-the-year feeling. With this system, however, you get to enjoy it
four times a year!
The Microcycle
In contrast, each Microcycle is about maximizing each workday

to fulfill different kinds of mandates. Each one of those workdays
should be about something specific.
The daily grind can be brutal if you don’t handle it correctly.

Most people will tell you their days are overloaded with stuff to
do, they never have a moment to breathe. And yet a recent study
by Salary.com discovered that the average person wastes nearly
an hour of every working day.1 A big culprit? Social media.
Facebook disclosed that people in the U.S. spend five hours
a week on Facebook alone! 2 We can say we’re too busy, but I
honestly don’t believe that’s the case.
My attitude is this: We’re not too busy; we’re just not on schedule.
So let’s talk about getting on schedule.
Getting into Your Zone
Benjamin Franklin said, “If we take care of the minutes, the years
will take care of themselves.” There’s a lot of truth in that, and it
completely applies to Microcycles. If you really want your days
to be highly productive, start by micromanaging your minutes
and really looking at how you’re spending your time.
1. Aaron Gouveia, “2014 Wasting Time at Work Survey,” Salary.com,

Accessed September 28, 2017, http://www.salary.com/2014-wasting-time-at-
work.
2. Sarah Frier, “Facebook’s Second-Quarter Revenue, Profit Tops Estimates,”
Bloomberg.com, July 23, 2014, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/ articles/
2014-07-23/facebook-posts-second-quarter-revenue-profit-topping-estimates.
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Productive Microcycles
I want to take this back to my old business, fitness, one more

time. Sometimes, when you’re working out, you get in a groove
and time flies by. You’re not thinking about what you’re doing—
you’re just doing it (to paraphrase the famous Nike ad slogan).
When your head is in that kind of zone, you get a lot more done
because you’re focused on and completely into the task at hand.
That always feels good.
But how do you empower yourself to get in the zone with your
business? What’s the best way to unleash all your entrepreneurial
energy in a productive way and create the kind of results you love
to see happen?
For me, it all comes down to dedicating each day to something

different and avoiding letting your flow get interrupted by a
hundred other random tasks. You want to engage in results-
oriented activities that move the needle—activities that grow
your business and help you prosper—and you want to do that at
the highest level.
Ideally, the goal is to commit at least 80 percent of your time to

these results-oriented activities during what I call a production
day. Doesn’t matter if these activities involve networking,
marketing, or directly tweaking your products and services,
they’re important, and they deserve your full attention. When you
block out a day for them it allows you to get into the “productive
zone,” versus jumping back and forth between production tasks
and support tasks. That kind of skipping around takes away your
attention and negatively impacts your production efforts.
Dedicate at least two to three “microcycles” (i.e. days) a week

to producing. Stay in your productive zone on those days and
focus on what helps your bottom line. Use your quarterly goals
and your annual scheduling to determine what you’re going to be
doing on those days a few weeks in advance, so you have time to
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think through what you’re going to do and, more importantly, how

you’re going to do it. That way when you do hit those production
days you’re good to go and ready to get into your zone.
Support Microcycles
Support Microcycles are days designed to make your production

days much more, well, productive. This is when you can take
some time to prepare for production days by doing research,
making sure someone you need is available for a project, or
setting up any other resources you’ll need then.
Support days should also be used for administrative and back-

office tasks. If you’re still pretty much a one-man band, things like
bookkeeping will end up happening during support microcycles.
These days may be kind of boring, but when you commit a full
day to getting admin tasks completed, you’ll be more highly
motivated to follow through rather than let those activities drag
out and potentially interrupt a production day.
Another important item that should be on the agenda for your

support days? Making sure your production days stay clear by
delegating and outsourcing things you don’t need to be doing
yourself. As your business grows, you’ll want to start building a
team that can help you clear some duties off your plate. Because
delegation only works if you take the time to train people properly
or hunt down professionals (like accountants and lawyers) that
can fill in some gaps, you’ll need to take time to find and equip
the people who will help you become even more productive.
You can’t do everything yourself, and you don’t want to. When
you are playing to your strengths, you become acutely aware
of the things you aren’t great at. Here’s the good news: There
are people in your organization or outside of it who are going to
excel at tasks that you barely manage to get done competently.
No offense to your abilities, but obviously an experienced CPA
is going to do your books better than you could. Part of your
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challenge as a business owner is keeping your head clear to

be as productive as possible, so increase your delegating and
outsourcing to complement the growth of your company.
Non-Work Microcycles
Time off is critical to your success and critical to your IDEAL

Business. First, it keeps your batteries charged. Second, you
want a life beyond your office door. That’s why it’s important to
schedule your time off in a way that gives you the most relaxation
and allows you to get the most out of it in terms of getting
refreshed and enjoying your life.
With that in mind, when you take time off, work toward getting
to the point where you’re taking a full day off. You don’t want
to go into the office for a couple of hours and then take the rest
of the afternoon off. When you do that, you put your mind into
a work mind-set that’s hard to shake. Just as it’s hard to stay
productive when other trivial tasks keep coming at you, it’s
almost impossible to completely relax when you haven’t made a
complete break with your business.
What I like to do is take the complete day off from the time I
get up to the time I go to bed—no work-related activities. I don’t
even read business books. How can I read a business book and
not start mentally applying its contents to my own company? I
can’t!
Nor do I check work emails on my non-work microcycles. If

you’re at the beach with your wife and kids it’s hard to stay
focused on your time with them if you’re constantly checking
your phone and dealing with incoming work texts and emails.
You end up not really being there with your family; instead,
your brain is whirring, working on the incoming messages and
wondering how you’re going to handle what you’re being told. To
really recharge, and to maintain meaningful connections with
the people you love, you've got to get away from your business.
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Bonus: when you’re refreshed you’ll be better at your business.
Believe it or not, learning how to relax can be hard work. Some

people actually get coaching on how to goof off! If you’ve spent
your adult life as an entrepreneur who never stops, you might not
know what to do with yourself when you’re not on the job. You
only learn by scheduling time off and planning for it.
It comes down to this: If you schedule time for a client, why

wouldn’t you schedule time for you? Make sure your personal
life is as full as your professional one to really achieve life
satisfaction.
Keeping Time
Here are a few more nuggets of advice that can help you keep
your schedule on track.
Don’t let emails and phone calls rule your life.
This, to me, is a huge rule. Schedule a block of time during the

work day for emails and calls, and stick to it. Don’t check your
phone or your inbox every time you take a little break.
Yes, we live in an era of instant communication, but you don’t

have to instantly respond to every communication you receive.
Being in constant contact with everyone can be a monster of
a distraction and can really cut your work flow to a trickle. If
you can avoid it, don’t open your email until after lunch. For
me, the morning is when I'm the most productive, and I don’t
want anything to get in the way of using that time of clarity and
focus. I don’t believe I have to answer an email on someone else’s
timetable—many times, I don’t respond for hours or even a day
or two. Same with calls.
You can’t stay in the zone when you can’t quit your phone.
164
Limit your social media.
Social media has its place. It’s important for marketing and for
keeping in touch with your family and friends. But it also can eat
up a lot of your time—up to seven hours of the week for most
people. When you get on Facebook (or whichever platform you
like to use) do it within a scheduled block of time, and don’t go
past that block. Or take five- or six-minute breaks to check it
out. Don’t spend hours randomly scrolling through newsfeeds, or
your day will quickly get away from you.
Make time for fitness.
This is something I know firsthand from my own experience:

The healthier you are, the more energy you have—energy to
put into your business. It’s easy to neglect your body and skip
working out when you’re a busy entrepreneur. Short term, you’ll
get away with it. Long term, it’ll catch up with you. Maintain
your physical fitness and you’ll find you have increased stamina
to tackle your business challenges.
Avoid eating in front of the computer.
Lunch breaks are important; they help you do better throughout

the rest of the day. You’ll get more stuff done by taking a walk,
reading, taking the dog for a walk, whatever it is that helps you
clear your mind and regain your mojo.
Try a weekly review and planning session.
Accountability is crucial to any business, not just an IDEAL one.

That’s why I recommend an end-of-the-week review and planning
session. For mine, I schedule ninety minutes every Friday
morning, and I consider it the most important hour-and-a-half
of my week. During that time I review what I’ve accomplished
that week and whether I’ve met my goals. I then get into specific
planning for the next week to make sure I can continue making
the right kind of progress.
165
So that’s how I do it. I admit not everything goes according to

schedule. What in life does? But as with all of the ideas in this
book, I consider it essential to have systems in place to keep me
on track. When something throws a monkey wrench into those
systems, it’s relatively easy to get them (and myself) back up and
running.
Time is a precious commodity. As with all precious commodities,

you should treasure it.
166
THE IDEAL FUTURE
CONCLUSION
THE IDEAL FUTURE
My guardrails are still very much in place. When I travel and

I’m going to be spending more than two nights in one place, I
make sure part of my family is with me. When I book meetings
and speaking engagements, I do it around my family’s schedule,
not the other way around. Last year alone, our family took eight
vacations, some of them shorter than others, but it was time spent
exclusively together.
As I write this, it’s about to be spring break for my kids. So I’m

going with them to Orlando, Florida, where I’ll host a coaching
group there for a couple of days. But for the other five? We’ll all
be at Disney World. There won’t be any early morning business
calls to interrupt our time off, like that Thanksgiving weekend I
wrote about in the intro to this book.
It’s actually easier for me to continue to build professional success

when I’m balancing it with my personal satisfaction. Maintaining
an IDEAL business forces me to do things a little differently
and think out of the box. Today, I’m a master at consolidating
the things I need to do so I can get them done quicker—and
eliminating the things I really don’t have to do.
I’m more efficient. I’m more productive. I’m also a whole lot
happier.
Now, it’s not all rainbows and candy. I still have to go to my

167
accountant and try to figure out complex tax issues. I must still
dedicate quality time to my clients and keep up with current
business trends. I must still make sure I’m doing a good job
motivating and leading my team. And I have to deal with my
own screw-ups because sometimes I make strategic decisions for
my business that don’t always work out. Usually they do, but it’s
not like I'm batting a thousand. I’ve never seen anyone with a
perfect record, and whoever says they do…well, let’s just say I’m
skeptical.
So yeah, I still work hard. I still write my daily email, I still

give my clients my all, and I’m still hopping on airlines to go
speak here and there. But here’s the difference: I used to spend 20
percent of my time doing the things I’m best suited to do. Now?
It’s 80 percent.
That huge improvement only happened because I put my

guardrails in place. I put the ideas in this book into action. I
didn’t lose myself in busy work. To the contrary, I streamlined.
I offloaded the tasks that weren’t in my wheelhouse onto more
qualified people and eliminated business ventures that were just
not a fit for where I saw myself going.
In other words, I made my life happen instead of letting it happen

to me. If I hadn’t consciously decided to improve my quality of
life, I don’t think it would have improved—ever. But I chose to
focus on my unique picture, what success looked like to me. I
saw where I wanted to go—and that’s the way I headed.
It’s tough to break out of our daily routines. We get into ruts and
don’t realize that we possess the power to climb out of them. Does
it take effort and thoughtful intention to change our patterns and
habits? Maybe a little disruption? Yes, it does. But that kind of
work beats just getting up, slogging through another meaningless
day, and coming home so exhausted you’re unable to enjoy your
home life.
168
THE IDEAL FUTURE
Sometimes my guardrails get a little dented. Earlier in this book

I told you about how I made a point of never missing any of my
kids’ ball games. Well, you know what? I still ended up missing
two games. Some business things got scheduled before my kids’
game schedule came out, and I had to honor my commitments.
That my children can understand.
But if I were to miss half of all their games? They’d be hurt, and
I’d feel unbearably guilty.
So is everything truly IDEAL for me? No. Life doesn’t work

that way. Not even an IDEAL Life. But I know if I don’t shoot
for that goal, I won’t get anywhere close to it. I’ve never been
happier or more satisfied with my life, and I’ve never had a better
relationship with my family—or my friends, for that matter. I’ve
had the same best friend since the fourth grade and, for the first
time in a long time, we actually have time to hang out. That
wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t created a better work-life
balance since he lives three hours away.
Aiming for the IDEAL Life takes willpower. It takes

determination. It takes direction. All of that must come from you.
I think the last rule sums it up nicely:
IDEAL BUSINESS RULE #20: IF YOU DON’T DO IT FOR

YOURSELF, NOBODY ELSE WILL DO IT FOR YOU.
I hope you, too, can enjoy the fruits of pursuing the IDEAL Life
as I have.
169
ABOUT PAT RIGSBY
About Pat
In the past decade, Pat Rigsby has built over 25
businesses as a CEO and Co-Owner, with seven
becoming million dollar or multi-million dollar ventures.
Two of those businesses, Athletic Revolution and
Fitness Revolution, have been multiple time winners
on the Entrepreneur Franchise 500, with each being the #1 franchise for
it’s respective market. Another business, Fitness Consulting Group, was a
multiple time honoree on the Inc. 5000, placing as high as #580 on the list
of fastest growing businesses in the U.S. Pat has also been a Best-Selling
Author® 11 times over, presented keynote speeches in front of thousands of
entrepreneurs, and has been featured in Entrepreneur, Forbes, Men’s Health,
USA Today and on hundreds of other media outlets.
When it comes to sales, Pat has personally sold as many as 116 franchises in
a single year, and he’s been the strategist and copywriter for over 10 million
dollars in online sales (for his own businesses and millions more in sales for
his clients).
Pat’s coaching & consulting clients have been featured in places like Men’s
Health, USA Today, Men’s Fitness, Shape, Women’s Heath, Huffington
Post and on ABC, CBS, NBC and pretty much any other media outlet you
can think of. In addition to that, they’ve built some of the most successful
businesses and brands in every corner of the industry, from local business
and supplement companies to online businesses, certification organizations
and even became Best-Selling Authors®. In fact, many (if not most) of the
experts providing business coaching in the fitness industry have been Pat’s
clients, customers or franchisees.
The best part of this? Pat has been able to do all of these things and more
while working from home, coaching his kids in baseball and soccer and
enjoying a type of entrepreneurial lifestyle he would have never thought
possible just a few short years ago.
If you'd like to see how you might be able to work together with Pat, you can
reach him at pat@patrigsby.com.
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Copyright © 2018 CelebrityPress® LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or

“If you’re looking to build a business that is rewarding in every

“Pat Rigsby is the perfect mentor for entrepreneurs. He's not

“This book is a MUST for anyone who wants a more fulfilling

“Starting a business is challenging. Managing growth of that

“There are countless generic business resources that may assist

“Pat lays out in detail the essentials of building an IDEAL

“Pat Rigsby, in his new book The IDEAL Business Formula,

No book becomes a reality through the work of just the author.

Holly—thank you for your support and partnership in business

Tyler and Alex—thank you for serving as the motivation to make

My parents—thank you to my mom, Linda, for being a never

Jeff Ramey—thanks for being both my best friend and my

Many thanks to the people on my team responsible for the “heavy

Thank you to all of my coaching clients who have committed to

Bill Hartman, Fred Zoller, Mike Reinold, Carrie Wilkerson, Eric

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ........................................................ 171

BY CARRIE WILKERSON AND

In 1998 my husband and I adopted siblings, a brother and sister,

I did not have an ounce of business training. I did not have a

What I did have was a burning desire to create cash using my

at your calendar, at your family photo, and your priorities and

Fast-forward to now, and you do the math…I’ve been a business

I’ve been fortunate enough to watch this transition in his life.

He’s come in to teach my clients and I point others in his direction

His family has been in my home, we’ve met mid-street at Disney

If you believe that profit is king, that prominence is queen and

Mike Roussell, PhD

When I first graduated from Penn State with my PhD in nutrition

Take an academic job researching and teaching at a smaller

Find a postdoctoral fellowship and be essentially a glorified

Perhaps I should find a job in the "industry" which paid well…

To be honest, none of these sounded appealing to me. It wasn't

I have always envisioned a different work-life than most PhDs.

So what did I choose? I chose to bet on myself. I purchased a

As I read the The IDEAL Business Formula, I found myself

My approach was fueled by hustle and caffeine. Fortunately, Pat

In fact, it is a lot simpler than you think.

Mike Roussell, PhD

Imagine if you had spent the last 15 years speaking with

You'd discover a universal type of language:

“I don’t have enough time for myself or my family.”

“I feel like my business ‘owns’ me.”

“I’m burned out.”

“I don’t enjoy owning my business anymore.”

Can you relate? I certainly can.

In fact, you should know I’ve experienced every one of those

I know the personal pain of feeling like my efforts were going

The passion in which I was pursuing success—the adrenalin

I was in constant pursuit and hunger for ‘more’…more revenue,

“What is business success for me?”

Not success according to some arbitrary gross revenue target.

No. No. No…success, for me, couldn’t be any of that.

Instead, I had to find out…

“What changes must take place for me to have the professional

My answer evolved into what I’ve coined The IDEAL Business.

Today, my work schedule could not be any more different. I have

the flexibility to coach my son’s baseball team. I can disconnect

Yet my impact has never been more significant, and my income

It’s time someone showed you, step-by-step, how to build the

Instead, this book is about you—100% you and your IDEAL

achieving success and consider adopting what I suspect will be

To make the process of building your IDEAL Business